Playing with Fire
by Lilian David
Summary: As his sixth year at Hogwarts begins, Draco Malfoy is faced with an impossible task and a decision nearly as difficult as what he is expected to accomplish. He must begin a deadly game of magic and intrigue with death as the near certain outcome.
1. Prologue: Choices

Summery: As his sixth year at Hogwarts begins, Draco Malfoy is faced with an impossible task and a decision nearly as difficult as what he is expected to accomplish. He must begin a deadly game of magic and intrigue with death as the nearly certain outcome.

Disclaimer: Not JKR

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Prologue: Choices

Pure-Blood Wizarding Society was a nasty dangerous mess where lies were prevalent and real friendship was a risk too great to take, where family came first and ones own desires last. It was into this society that Draco Malfoy was born, and in this society that he flourished.

Draco loved the lies, the deceit, he loved figuring it out. It was a giant puzzle, with a hundred different changing pieces to keep track of, a deadly game where one wrong move could mean your life. He was good at that game, his face always a perfect icy mask, his smile a cool sneer that seemed implanted upon his face. He never thought of the price, might never have realized how much the game cost him. He had never had real friends, because the words that he heard, the flattery and the insults, were meaningless.

Even at Hogwarts, surrounded by people his own age, pure-bloods, part-bloods and mud-bloods alike, Draco still found that the game existed. It was played with the same amount of vigor, the same consistency, the same fluctuating rules that had fascinated him ever since he was a child, the only real difference was that Hogwarts held less players.

It was only after the dark mark rested upon his arm that he realized that this game of deceit and danger might be too much, even for him. The stakes were high, higher than he would have liked them, for while he had no trouble dicing with his own life, his family was another story. Trained in all of the arts of a pure-blood heir, Draco Malfoy knew he had no choice but to prove he was up to the task, to win the impossible game.

It was night and the Malfoy Manor was silent, in the solitude of his evening bath, Draco thought. Hot water had always soothed him, his bathroom was a sanctuary which the troubles of the world could not disturb. This night though, hot water did little to sooth his troubled mind.

He looked at the dark mark, fresh on his arm, a permanent reminder of the task he had been given, and the choice. Draco had not been surprised to be ordered to kill Dumbledore, it was a fools errand, designed to get him killed and to punish his family. Draco had been surprised to be given a choice, an alternative. He could kill Dumbledore, but his other option...It was that which worried him.

Draco leaned back into the water so it nearly enveloped him completely, and mentally listed the reasons that it worried him.

1. It made absolutely no sense.

2. It was creepy and wrong on so many levels.

3. He wasn't sure he wouldn't rather murder somebody.

Lord Voldemort, the Dark Lord, had commanded him to kill Dumbledore or to seduce a woman nearly fifty years his senior. _Shit._

Draco had no other way to describe it. Could he? Certainly. He had been trained in the art of seduction (and firmly believed it was an art), but would he? Did he want to? He reminded himself that he did not have to make a decision this night, that it would be better to wait, to think on it, to meet the woman first.

If asked, he would explain that he wanted to keep his options open and would wait and see what opportunities came up for accomplishing either task. It was a response he knew would be unlikely to anger his master, the Dark Lord valued cunning and planning, Draco's decision would show both. More than that, it would give him time.


	2. Chapter 1: The New Teacher

Draco Malfoy did not look tense when he boarded the train at King's Cross Station, he did not look bothered in the least as he sat down in a compartment with his friends. Of course, he hesitated to call them that. Vincent and Gregory, he had known the two of them since all three of them had been young children, and they got along. In public they presented a united front, working together to maintain their reputation, in private, the three could laugh and joke. Vincent and Gregory did not like the games of pure-blood society, they did not like complicated lies that were standard to it, and as such, they would never betray Draco's trust. Betrayal, a very simple thing to Draco, was not a part of their world.

Pansy Parkinson, she was not a friend, not a crony, and certainly not his girlfriend, whatever she might tell her friends. Pansy was a poor student in the arts of seduction, she might have been talented, Draco granted that, but he was far out of her league when it came to such things. Pansy, for example, couldn't tell a lie to save her life, anyone who believed Pansy would have to have been an even greater idiot than Pansy.

It was also rather painfully obvious to Draco that her family had wanted her to court him. With her friends, or when she forgot to be nice to him, she was painfully rude. Mostly though, Pansy simpered and clung to his every word as though her life depended on it. Draco found the whole affair rather nauseating, of course, throwing up in his mouth whenever she managed to get him alone was not something the ice prince of Slytherin would ever admit to.

"Do you know who the new teachers are? I heard we had two." Draco asked, mostly trying to see if Pansy knew anything, the other two would have mentioned it to him if they did. "I know about Professor Slughorn."

"The other one must be for the new class the ministry wants." Pansy remarked. Draco nodded slightly, "Something about physical education."

"Yes, I had forgotten." He admitted, "The ministry thinks that we need to make sure our bodies are as fit as our minds." He said, quoting the Daily Prophet. Pansy rolled her eyes.

"I think we should be able to opt out if we're not fat."

"If you tell Dumbledore that your mind is fit because of the wonderful education your receiving, I'm sure you'd get out." A lithe girl stood in the compartment door, she looked to be about seventeen. She had gray eyes that danced with laughter, and black hair that framed her face neatly. Her movements were graceful, almost those of a dancer. "Do you mind if I join you? Everywhere else is full." Draco nodded and motioned for her to sit between himself and Parkinson, he rather hoped that he might be saved from her chatter.

"I'm Draco Malfoy, these are Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle-"

"And I'm Pansy Parkinson." The girl chimed in, hoping to make a new friend, and to see if this newcomer had eyes for Draco.

"Maeve," She said softly. "Maeve Solis." Draco nodded slightly.

"You're new this year?" He was certain of it, but her story would give something to pass the time, at the worst he might have to resort to reading one of Vince's comics.

"I am." She said, but did not elaborate. Draco sighed inwardly, not wanting to interrogate her. Most girls, he had noticed, chattered automatically, but it stood to reason that when he wanted one that did he would encounter the only one that didn't.

"Well!" Pansy asked, "Where are you from? Why are you here? Tell us everything!" She commanded. Maeve smiled.

"I could tell you the most fascinating story ever imagined," Her eyes danced with laughter as she spoke, "And not a word of it would be true. Wouldn't you rather I didn't lie?" Draco raised an eyebrow, interest peaked. "Lying is such trouble." She remarked cheerfully. "Won't you tell me about Hogwarts?" She prompted, and Pansy immediately began to fill the silence as Draco stared out of the window distractedly.

Draco looked up when Zabini entered the compartment, about to ask him what Slughorn had wanted, Draco stopped as Zabini tried and failed repeatedly to close the compartment door. Then, without warning, the door flung open violently throwing Blaise into Gregory. As this happened, Draco could have sworn he saw a flash of white, but then it was gone.

Greg slammed the door shut and flung Blaise off of him, Zabini collapsed into his own seat by the window, directly across from Draco. "Blaise, this is Maeve, Maeve, Blaise." Draco said, introducing them casually. Zabini took her hand in his, and terrible flirt that he was, kissed it. She handled it better than Draco would have suspected, not even blushing.

That was the last in their little group, Blaise Zabini, Zabini played the game well, as good, perhaps better than Draco. Zabini had a humorous, joking manor that could get nearly anyone to spill their secrets to him. More than that, Zabini didn't gossip. Draco liked him, but he didn't trust him. Zabini had no close friends, Draco at least and Vince and Greg as he called them. Zabini was an enigma. As a general rule, such things bothered Draco, but with Blaise, he had simply given up. Zabini hated giving out personal information even more than Draco himself. Draco had long since resigned himself that the mystery that was Blaise Zabini was not going to be solved, at least, not by him.

"So, Zabini," Draco said, trying to distract Blaise from the pretty girl. "What did Slughorn want?" Draco inferred that Pansy had already told Maeve about Slughorn as she didn't interrupt.

"Just trying to make up to well-connected people," Blaise said, still watching Maeve, whose eyes were alert and interested. "Not that he managed to find many."

"Who else did he invite?" Draco asked curiously, he wanted to know who it was that Slughorn thought was well-connected.

"McLaggen from Gryffindor."

"Oh yeah," Draco recalled, "His uncle's big in the Ministry."

"Someone else called Belby, from Ravenclaw"

"Not him, he's a prat!" Pansy chimed in. Draco rather thought Pansy's opinions were based only on physical appearance, but he had never bothered to find out.

"Longbottom, Potter, and that Weasley girl." Potter was not a surprise, and Draco knew immediately who _that Weasley girl_ was, as there was only one Weasley girl.

"He invited Longbottom?" It was the one name that didn't make sense, and Draco wanted to know why.

"Well, I assume so, as Longbottom was there." Zabini remarked. Unlike Draco, Zabini did not have an interest in mysteries, perhaps it came from being one.

"What's Longbottom got to interest Slughorn?" Draco wondered aloud. "Potter, well, he obviously wanted a look at 'the Chosen one', but that Weasley girl! What makes her so special?"

"A lot of boys like her," Pansy said. "Even you think she's good looking, don't you Blaise, and we all know how hard you are to please."

"I wouldn't touch a filthy little blood traitor like her whatever she looked like." Blaise said coldly. Draco noticed that Maeve did not look surprised, her face was a mask, her emotions hidden, making him wonder at what they were. She didn't seem the type to hide them automatically, so perhaps she didn't share their views on pure-blood status.

"Well, I pity Slughorn's taste. Maybe he's going a bit senile. Shame, my father always said he was a good wizard in his day. My father used to be a bit of a favorite of his." Of course, from what Draco had heard, Slughorn had a lot of favorites. "Slughorn probably hasn't heard I'm on the train."

"I wouldn't bank on an invitation." Blaise remarked. "He asked me about Nott's father when I first arrived. They used to be old friends, apparently, but when he heard he'd been caught at the Ministry he didn't look happy, and Nott didn't get an invitation, did he? I don't think Slughorn's interested in Death Eaters." Maeve's eyes were a little more alert, a little more careful.

Draco laughed, for her benefit as much as for the others. "As a teacher, he can't really afford to alienate so large a portion of his students, can he?" She remarked softly. Draco shrugged.

"He may have a rather skewed vision of what he can afford. He used to be head of Slytherin house." And that, Draco knew, would have certainly helped the man develop an inflated ego, not that he thought Slughorn had needed the help. "Anyway, who cares what he's interested in? What is he, when you come down to it? Just a teacher." He answered himself. "I mean, I may not even be at Hogwarts next year," He might be resting in a grave by that time. "What's it matter to me if some fat old has-been likes me or not?"

"What do you mean, you might not be at Hogwarts next year?" Pansy asked sharply, and Draco wished he hadn't mentioned it. Now she would feel constricted by time and her attempts to court him were bound to get worse.

"Well, you never know, I might have moved on to bigger and better things?"

Draco remained the calm icy mask as he hinted and danced around the topic of the Dark Lord, never giving out any truly useful information, but saying enough that everyone, with the possible exception of Parkinson could put together a vague picture. He would need help, whichever course he chose to take. Everyone watched him except for Maeve, even Greg, who seldom allowed anyone to distract him from comics. Blaise had allowed his mask to slip slightly, showing genuine curiosity.

"Do you mean _Him?_" Pansy asked, voice startled. Draco shrugged.

"Mother wants me to complete my education, but personally, I don't see it as that important these days. I mean, think about it...When the Dark Lord takes over, is he going to care how many O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s anyone's got? Of course he isn't...It'll be all about the kind of service he received,t eh level of devotion he was shown." Draco watched Maeve for a reaction as she examined her fingernails closely.

"You know about the Dark Lord? Right?" Pansy checked.

"Yes, I do." Maeve said, her eyes still on her hands, and Draco wondered what he would see in them if he looked.

"You think you'll be able to do something for him?" Blaise asked, "Sixteen years old and not even fully qualified yet?"

"I've just said, haven't I? Maybe he doesn't care if I'm qualified." Draco knew he was qualified for at least one of the tasks, and was certain the Dark Lord cared. "Maybe the job he wants me to do isn't something that you need to be qualified for," not formally qualified at any rate. "I can see Hogwarts." He said, looking out the window.

After the train ground to a halt, Pansy led Maeve out, chattering all the while. Draco motioned for them to go on. Maeve was pretty, but Draco made a point to ignore it. For all he knew, she was a muggle born. Besides, Draco couldn't afford to let a pretty face make too much of an impression on him, he couldn't let anything like that affect his decision.

Draco moved to the compartment door and let down the blinds, then he bent down to his truck and opened it, drawing his wand. "Petrificus Totalus!" Harry Potter fell out of the luggage rack, his body contorted in the tight position that he had held, crammed in the luggage compartment. "I thought so." He said, happy to have his suspicions confirmed. "I thought I saw something white flash through the air after Zabini came back." He smirked cheerfully. "You didn't hear anything I care about, Potter. But while I've got you here..." He stamped hard on Potters face, blood spurted erratically. "That's from my father. Now, let's see..." Draco grabbed Potter's invisibility cloak and flung it over him. "I don't reckon they'll find you till the rain's back in London," Draco assumed the people watching Potter would find him long before then. "See you around, Potter...or not." His smirk widened as he walked out of the compartment.

Once out of Potter's sight, Draco's mask slid back in place, calm and collected, he made his way to the carriages. He didn't particularly like causing people injury, but Potter was annoying, and Draco had a reputation to uphold. It wouldn't do for Potter to think he'd gone soft over the summer.

Draco met up with Greg, Vince, Pansy and Blaise, but Maeve was nowhere to be seen. "Where'd you lose the new girl?" He asked Pansy casually.

"Funny, that's exactly what happened actually." Blaise remarked.

"She disappeared. You saw, she was just gone!" Pansy said angrily.

"Well, they'll probably have some fuss about sorting her anyway." Draco said, shrugging as they stepped into a carriage.

"That's right, she's probably in the boats!" Pansy exclaimed, thrilled to have made an intelligent inference, never mind that she had been led to it.

Quietly Draco explained to them about what had kept him. He assured Pansy that he wasn't worried about Potter having overheard, and yes, someone probably would find him, unfortunately. When the carriage came to a halt, they got out and made their way to the great hall.

They watched as a bunch of terrified midgets were dragged up in front of the entire school and sorted into houses, applauding and booing at the appropriate moments and generally ignoring the entire thing. Then, they were finally allowed to eat.

As Draco looked up, he watched his head of house, Severus Snape walk in, accompanied by none other than Harry Potter. "Looks like his stalkers found him in time after all." Draco muttered, then stared as Maeve Solis walked in behind them. She nodded to Professor Snape and they walked together to the staff table filling the remaining seats.

"Well, that explains why she wouldn't tell us anything, doesn't it?" Draco said, staring at the staff table. A smile played about Maeve's lips and Draco realized something that made his heart stop beating. Maeve Solis was the new teacher, Maeve Solis was the woman he was suppose to seduce, and Maeve Solis looked really good for someone over fifty years his senior.

"Oh my God!" Pansy said loudly from beside Draco. "She-"

"She fooled us all." Blaise said, looking at her respectfully. "Guess as to which house she'd have been in?" He asked, amused. "She's good."

"Yeah." Draco agreed, "She is."

"The best of evenings to you," Dumbledore said, standing in front of the table. He spread his arms wide and Draco noticed that Dumbledore's right hand was blackened and dead-looking, Draco suspected the old man had been playing with one cursed object too many. The hall broke into whispers, "Nothing to worry about," Dumbledore said, covering his injury. "Now, to our new students, welcome, to our old students, welcome back. Another year full of magical education awaits you..."

"Joy." Pansy's voice dripped sarcasm, Draco laughed softly.

"I would like to remind you that the forest on the grounds if forbidden to all students, and Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has asked me to say that there is a blanket ban on any joke items bought at the shop called Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes."

Draco almost snorted, a blanket ban wouldn't help. The Weasley twins were talented and he had no doubt after their years at the school they would have plenty of ways to get things in.

"Those wishing to play for their House Quidditch teams should give their names to their Heads of House as usual. We are also looking for new Quidditch commentators, who should do likewise.

We are pleased to welcome two new staff members this year. Professor Slughorn is a former colleague of mine who has agreed to resume his old post of Potions master."

"Potions? But-"

"Professor Snape, meanwhile, will be taking over the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Draco almost laughed aloud, some of his housemates did. It was well known that Professor Snape had wanted the post and it was also fairly well known, at least in Slytherin, that Professor Snape had quite a bit of first hand experience with the dark arts, and it hadn't been defending against it.

"Now, as many of you will know, the Ministry of Magic has made new requirements stating that we will have a mandatory physical education class once a week for everyone. This class will be taught by Professor Solis." There was quite a bit of muttering at this statement, it seemed no one wanted to have physical education, Draco included. "Miss Solis also be offering a class on old etiquette for those who wish to take it, notify your Head of House if you require a schedule change.

Now, as everybody in this hall knows," Dumbledore began, "Lord Voldemort and his followers are once more at large and gaining in strength." Draco didn't break the deep silence in the hall, instead, he merely concentrated on levitating his fork, deliberately ignoring the headmasters words.

"...But now, your beds await, as warm and comfortable as you could possibly wish."

"Finally!" Draco muttered, letting the fork fall back to the table.

"...Let us therefore say good night. Pip pip!" Everyone scrambled from their seats out of the hall

"That took forever." Pansy muttered, those around her murmured in agreement.

On the way to the dungeons Draco stopped to ask Professor Snape about Etiquette lessons, Snape had raised an eyebrow, but had only said that he would arrange it. Draco's friends, overhearing, said they would do the same. Draco had the nagging suspicion that they might well be the only ones taking the class. Maeve Solis would not be well liked, the addition of her class was not a popular one.

The rest of the day passed in a blur for Draco, he found in surprisingly easy to slip back into the routine of the castle. As he lay in bed that night, he found himself thinking that he would miss the castle. He knew the odds were that it would be his last year.


	3. Chapter 2: Etiquette

After picking up his schedule from Professor Snape who was grumpily handing them out during breakfast, Draco made his way to his first class, which, as fate would have it, was Etiquette.

The classroom was a small windowless room on the third floor, and when he got there, he found Maeve going through lesson plans while a small duster went around the room. Spiders fled in it's wake. "Good Morning Professor." He said, sitting down in the front row.

"Morning." She said absently, then looked up slightly to see him. "Draco," She said smiling. "Don't get to comfortable, I have to rearrange this mess." He stood up, and she waved her wand. As she did so the chairs and desks transformed themselves to cushioned seats with little writing shelves on the side and lined up against the walls. "Ah, much better." She said cheerfully.

Draco eyed the chairs, impressed. "They really didn't give me much of a classroom." She said, sighing. "Well, it's not exactly as if the castle was built for either of the classes I'm teaching."

"What do you mean?" He deliberately left out the formalities, hoping that she would become comfortable without them.

"Etiquette should not be taught in a room like this," She said, "Honestly, there's only so much you can do with transformation spells. And Physical Education, well, that's hardly classroom work either."

He set his things down beneath one of the chairs and sat in it as she tidied up absently. When she had finished, she sat on her desk, legs dangling slightly. Her cool eyes watched him with cold calculation.

In a sudden burst of noise, Draco's housemates made their way into the classroom. He recognized Millicent Bulstrode, Theodore Nott, and Daphne Greengrass, along with Blaise, Pansy, Vince and Greg. All where talking. Behind them, Hermione Granger and a Ravenclaw girl that he believed was Lisa Turpin. Everyone took seats around the room, watching the young teacher.

"Hello," The woman said, smiling at her students. "Welcome to my class on old etiquette." She scanned the group, "Pure-blood etiquette originates from old etiquette, so it will be interesting to see how most of you adapt to it." She looked at Granger, "I believe you are the only one without a background in it."

"Pure-blood etiquette?" She asked, her face clearly betraying confusion.

"It is a culture that has changed little over the years," There was something almost resigned in her tone, but she smiled at the girl. "We'll cover the differences between the two, so you should pick up on both." Granger nodded her acceptance.

"You seem to know a lot about Pure-blood society for someone without a pure-blood name." Draco remarked casually, startling many of the students with his boldness. She laughed.

"So bold?" She asked, eyes dancing. "You are right though, you won't find my name listed among the pure-blood families." Her words were spoken calmly, her voice was casual.

Granger frowned slightly, "There are books, it keeps people from marrying their cousins." Her smile was wry as horror marked the girls face. "One of the reasons pure-blood society is so stagnant is the fact that pure-blood wizards live longer than those of muggle descent. While extensive use of magic will lengthen your lifespan, it is spread over generations in pure-bloods. You can, if you know a persons age, judge their blood degree by their appearance. It doesn't work at your age of course."

"And how old are you?" One of his housemates seemed to realize that the class was to be a casual one. She laughed.

"Old enough." She said, still smiling. "And if you ask that again, I'm going to assume you actually need to be in this class." Her eyes danced with mischief. "I graduated from Hogwarts the same year as Professor Snape, and I don't use magic to change my appearance." She informed them. "I look forward to seeing what you can do with the information.

Granger stared, so did the rest of them. She looked seventeen, and if she was Snape's age, that would put her in her thirties. Pure-bloods didn't age at the same rate, but such a dramatic example was unheard of. Draco suspected everyone (excluding Granger) would be writing home with questions about her, he knew he would.

"Now," She said, voice swiftly becoming business like. "Let's discuss the traditional greetings used at pure-blood social functions. The basics, if you would. Miss Granger, this is mostly for your benefit, and of course, I want to see if the rest of the class posses those things they call manners." She stood and faced the students. "Mr. Nott, at a beginning of the social season, how would you greet an elderly aunt you hadn't seen for the better part of a year?"

"Politely." He said.

"I should hope so." She said, lips pursed. "However, I want to know what words you would use, what actions if any. Do you require assistance?" She did not wait for him to answer, "Miss Bulstrode, would you kindly play his aunt for us?" It may have been phrased as a question but they all knew it was anything but.

Millicent Bulstrode stood up, then proceeded to drag Nott to his feet, sighing irritably. "Do you need me to say anything?" She asked, glaring.

"Only if you want to embarrass him." She said, smiling and returning to sitting on her desk. Millicent smirked.

"Theo? Honey it's been forever! Oh you've grown so tall!" She said all of this in a horribly over the top voice then stepped forward to pinch his cheeks.

"Aunt it's lovely to see you." He said in his most courtly fashion, not even complaining about the facial damage. He took her hand and bowed over it, kissing it lightly.

The Professor clapped, and the rest of the class reluctantly did the same. "I guess you both have great aunts with similar attitudes?"

"We have the same aunt." She muttered darkly, sitting down. Draco knew that it was a great aunt (at least one great, possibly more) that they shared, and he believed it was through marriage that they were related.

"Horrible lady, awful perfume." Theodore agreed, also sitting.

"Now, one of the quirks of the old court etiquette is that there is very little curtsying. Both genders bow. The bows are many and varied, lengths depend on the social status of the person you're dealing with and how it compares to your own."

"Excuse me, Professor, exactly how is this useful?"

"Anything, Miss Parkinson," She said coldly, "that furthers your understanding of your own culture and society is useful. Old etiquette is extremely useful because it is used more commonly than you might think, though less and less by wizards." Pansy frowned.

"Then by who?"

"Whom? By the many ancient and varied races that walk this earth. My dear foolish girl you cannot possibly believe that your own is the only society with etiquette and social norms?" The look on Pansy's face said that she did, and the Professor shook her head at the girl. "At any rate, the rules regarding how people are greeted are fairly similar to the ones you already know. However, we're still going over them." She said, smiling wryly.

"First, let's discuss the greeting none of you will have any experience with," She said, her eyes dancing in amusement. "To great your liege, and yes, I said liege. I presume you know what the word means, yes? You kneel on the ground approximately three feet in front of them, head barely above the ground, hands palm down directly before your head."

"Could you demonstrate?" Draco turned his head to see who it was who wanted to see the pretty young professor on her knees. In a single swift motion she moved into the position, then rose again.

"The word is 'will'." She informed the boy, ice in her eyes. "Now, can anyone tell me why you would greet your liege in such a manner?"

"It demonstrates submission, doesn't it?" Granger asked, hesitating. The professor nodded in encouragement. "It puts you at risk, bares your neck."

"Which is one of those places you don't especially want to give an enemy a clear shot at, since it doesn't take much to sever it from your shoulders." She said, smiling at the girl. "It doesn't matter where you are, surrounded by people, standing in a pile of manure, you make that gesture. The price of doing otherwise is simply to high."

"It's not like any of us are ever going to need that." Pansy said scathingly.

"Won't you?" She asked, "There are situations in which that action might save your life." They waited, but she did not elaborate.

"What do you do if you didn't bow when you were supposed to?" The Ravenclaw asked. The professor's mouth quirked into a thin line.

"You kneel, back straight but with your head bowed down, at the feet at the person you managed to gravely offend, and then you sit there until they either decide to forgive you for it, or walk away."

"I don't understand, what's the significance?"

"The action is an offering of yourself, which is seen to be worth more than anything else you can offer. It is basically saying 'here I am, do with me what you will' in a very real way. It means you sit there and accept whatever they decide until they forgive you. It gives someone else complete power over you and is the ultimate for of submission. That forgiveness is symbolized by their hand resting on your shoulder, head or neck and them telling you to get up." She explained.

"You make no formal apology, before you kneel you say that you have offered insult unintentionally, or something along those lines. To make a verbal apology is not to make one at all, the most formal apologies are not verbal." Granger was not the only one looking confused, she sighed.

"There are a number of apologies ranging in formality and degree but all are variants on the same one."

"Everything's based on submission?"

"Yes Miss Granger. A few other things, but respect, and submission are some of the major supports of it." She explained. "A society is based on it's socially excepted norms, correct?" She said, nodding to Granger, "Mr. Malfoy, name two of the things as a pure-blood heir you are never ever suppose to do." She ordered, startled he answered with the first things that came to mind.

"Beg, submit."

"Remnants of the old ways, it is much the same. Those are the two most humiliating things that one can do, that is why, as an apology, submission is a very clear message. Words are not used because of the lies that are so often told.

Begging, however, is an entirely different kettle of fish, so to speak. Doing it of your own free will is generally frowned upon, though there are a handful of situations when it is not."

"Like?" He was curious, and more curious as a tint of pink lit up the woman's cheeks.

"Never mind those." She said, managing to keep a straight face, a difficult trick in the face of a bunch of sixth year Slytherins all of whom wanted to hear an exact description of whatever it was that had made their calm, collected teacher blush.

"Are you going to cover traditional dances, Professor?" Draco asked, grinning at her. Her face slid into the icy mask that was becoming familiar.

"Did you want me to cover one in particular?" She asked, her voice betraying no emotion.

"I was wondering if the old courtesies involved the same ones that we use."

"They do."

"Well, you'll have to teach them to Granger, won't you?"

"Mr. Malfoy that is highly inappropriate."

"I don't understand." Granger said, the teacher glanced at her, and sighed.

"The reference, Miss Granger, is to a formality that occurs at nearly every pure-blood social gathering. Of all the games played in such situations, it is the one I like the least, it is also one of the more..." She trailed off slightly. "Unpleasant. Or at least, I have always found it to be so. It's formal name translates to Corruption, and the name is rather fitting." Draco snickered.

"As you find it so amusing, Mr. Malfoy, Do explain." She suggested, her eyes dark with anger.

"The entire point of the thing is to try and get the other person to react noticeably."

"To embarrass them publicly." She explained helpfully.

"React?" Draco sighed inwardly.

"Sexually."

"What?" She said in utter and complete shock.

"That is the idea of it, Miss Granger." The teacher said flatly, "Do you understand better why I dislike it? I hope the reference has been explained to your satisfaction."

Granger nodded mutely, pulling up parchment so as to hide her blush behind it. It was ineffective.

"You're going to have to further her understanding Professor, I don't think she's quite gotten it." She raised an eyebrow minutely. "You'll just have to demonstrate."

"Detention, Mr. Malfoy, Tomorrow evening, at seven." She said, her voice betrayed no emotion, but her eyes held the cold ice of anger. Her mask was perfect, but her eyes showed emotion, and perhaps they were meant to. "Miss Granger, I would like to speak with you after class." She said absently.

"Now, tell me, Mr. Zabini, how would you greet someone your own age for the first time?" She asked.

"Gender?"

"Female."

"Similarly to the aunt, a half bow and kiss her hand, making the usual polite remarks."

"Elaborate." She commanded.

"Hello, how are you, it's a pleasure." She nodded.

"Good. It is the same in the old etiquette." She said, calmly observing them. "Enough of greetings for now," She said, "Let's discuss marriage, dating, the entirety." She smiled slightly.

"By the old ways, to marry, someone must be pregnant first." This surprised them. "It helped maintain the bloodlines and meant that no matter how bad a marriage was there was always something to show for it." She explained.

"The old customs involve dating?" Pansy asked sharply. "That's hardly covered in ours."

"No, you are correct. They do not. Arranged marriages are as much a part of the old customs and your lives as they are mine." She said softly.

"That was the point I wished to make. You are granted that freedom here, pray use it well." She said, her eyes holding something he couldn't quite identify. "Having multiple lovers is not considered bad by the old customs, although, it is important never to allow someone a place in your bed and not your heart, it is such things that trap one into a bad marriage."

"So, by the old ways, it doesn't matter who you sleep with?"

"Oh no, quite the contrary. Any one you sleep with you could well end up married to. These rules of etiquette were designed before birth control. The old customs still forbid it. And of course, it is assumed your lover, or lovers, have influence over you. That of course, makes the games all the more complicated." They nodded their agreement.

"I suppose there are courtesies for the bedroom as well?" Blaise drawled, his eyes smiling at her.

"There are." She said evenly, her eyes dancing with unspoken mischief. She didn't even blush, 'and of course she didn't', Draco thought to himself. 'She's not exactly young and innocent, however much she may look it'.

She looked at her watch, "I'd like to use the last few minutes of class for discussion, assuming you can keep it clean?" She made it a question. "Questions anyone?"

"What are we doing in Physical Education?" The Ravenclaw asked.

"I'll let you know when I decide." She said, grinning. "Not the same thing as the Gryffindors and Slytherins, I have them at the same time every single time they have class with me this week."

Most of Draco's housemates were trying to decide if they had been insulted or not. Peals of Granger's laughter filled the room. Maeve Solis smiled at them cheerfully. "Go on you lot," She said, waving them out. "I've got a mess to deal with next, and it's too nice for you to be indoors anyway."

Slowly, they took out their things and filed out of the room, Draco stayed behind with his ear to the closed door, listening.

"Professor, I'm worried that I hold this class behind, and it is true that I will never have any use for such things."

"Nonsense." The professor said firmly. "If I may speak frankly, it will be war by summer. Everyone is gathering their allies, it will be a bloodbath." Her voice was cold. "I lived through the last of such wars, and I lost two of my immediate family members for it. My mother, and later my sister both died because of it. There are two factions in pure-blood society, those that will side with light and those that will side with dark, this you know. Depending on who wins this war, the families that side with dark will be wanting to marry girls associated with light families. I should suspect you and Ginny Weasley will be in high demand."

"I'm a mud-blood professor." She said coldly. "It's not likely."

"Don't use that term Hermione." She said wearily. "It ill suits you. We will see who is right in this, or we will die in the fighting. There is another reason as well, many of those allies that you will have work only in the old ways and it will be necessary to know them. Knowing those ways may well save your life, and those of your companions. If you find yourself in a situation that means you need help, knowledge of the old customs may well provide it."

"How do you mean?"

"Hermione, I have worked with the order of the Phoenix before though I am not a member. I told you that I lost family members in the last war, it is because of that loss that I am here now. My life rests on the outcome of this war."

"Professor?"

"Ask questions, but ask them not of me. There are those who might answer them for you, you know who they are. My pure-blood students will be writing home, I expect you to do similarly, and then, Miss Granger, we will talk."

Draco walked away quickly, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping as Granger left the room. He wasn't sure what to make of this new development, but he knew one thing for certain, he would be writing home to his mother. He needed more information about the woman known as Maeve Solis.

His second class was Defense Against the Dark Arts, a class he was not particularly bothered about. Professor Snape's class was likely to be a bit of a joke, Draco knew well that Professor Snape had messed with the dark arts. He also knew that the dark mark rested upon his arm, as it did his own.

While the class was held with Gryffindor, it remained relatively uneventful aside from the usual trouble that Potter caused. The result was the standard loss of points from Gryffindor, and all in all it was surprisingly uneventful.

When he went to lunch, he noticed that Maeve was not at the staff table. Pansy was busy talking to him, so he had time to think. Maeve Solis had graduated with Professor Snape yet he had been told she was at least fifty years his senior, in addition to those contradicting facts, she looked seventeen.

She worked with the Order of the Phoenix, but was not a member. Her life was somehow connected to the war, though he did not know how. The Order of the Phoenix knew more about her than most pure-blood families. Draco, frustratingly, did not have enough information to put together a complete picture of her. He simply did not have enough information, the only conclusion he could make was that she was a woman of many secrets, and many layers. He suspected that getting past them would prove to be quite challenging indeed.


	4. Chapter 3: Detentions and Developments

Chapter 3: Detentions and Developments

After dinner, Draco made his way to Maeve's office. She was working when he came in and only looked up slightly as he entered. "Sit down." She said, putting aside her work and looking at him, her gray eyes calculating. Draco fought the urge to squirm under her steady gaze, and it was only through sheer willpower that he stayed still as the minutes dragged on. When she spoke, her voice was calm, "I have a feeling that this is a waste of both your time and mine. Please don't do it again."

"If I listened to that, would it be a waste?" She frowned, pausing to think on it.

"Perhaps, perhaps not." She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them. "You are well?" She asked, eyes probing. "You seem a little...tense."

"I'm fine." He said firmly, his denial a little too firm even in his own ears. She should never have noticed, no one ever noticed. She shrugged slightly.

"As you would." She said softly, rising from her desk slowly. She picked up a satchel and moved to the door. "Come along." She said, holding the door open for him.

"Is that-" She handed him the satchel, "Raw hamburger?"

"Yes." She said as he looked into the satchel warily, following her down the corridor.

"What on earth are we doing?" Maeve gave him a half smile as they started down the stairs.

"I'm," She said, emphasizing the word, "feeding thestrals." She said, turning onto the second floor. "You're collecting thestral dung for Professor Sprout." Her eyes danced as he looked at her, shocked.

"You're joking." He said, staring at her. She laughed.

"Cheer up, the gloves are for you, the raw hamburger is for me." He was happy to note that there actually was a pair of gloves in the satchel. They walked to the forest in silence, Draco drew his wand as they entered, Maeve raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing.

"The forest's dangerous." He informed her seriously, hoping she'd get her wand out as well. She shrugged.

"For some." He caught the unsaid words in her answer, '_For some, but not for me._'. "You shouldn't need that though." She said cheerfully as they entered a clearing. Draco handed her the satchel and she took out some hamburger. "I thought you could see them." She said softly.

"Who did you see?" He asked softly, taking out the gloves.

"Many people." She said simply, conjuring a large garbage bag and giving it to him. Draco watched as she held out her hand, full of hamburger and a young thestral came to her, eating right from her hand. To his knowledge, they didn't generally do that.

Sighing, Draco got to work. Nearly half an hour passed when Maeve stiffened. She had been out of hamburger for about five minutes and had been stroking a thestral. In a sudden motion, all of the thestrals took flight. "Get behind me." She ordered, instead of a wand, she held a blade.

"What?" He asked. There was no way he was getting behind her, she was just a kid. "No way, I can protect myself."

"It wasn't optional." She said coldly. "I am over twice your age, don't be an idiot." There was a deep rustling from the forest, Draco dropped the bag of manure and moved to stand beside her. She put a hand out slightly in front of him, her eyes dark as she watched the forest.

"The forest has never been dangerous for me," She said softly, "But it is for most people. Even so, they shouldn't be here." She said, frowning. "Something's rising and I don't like it." She muttered as over a hundred pairs of eyes stared at them from the trees.

"Step aside," The largest spider Draco had ever seen said, stepping out into the clearing. It's fellows behind it in the trees. "There is no need to fight, Lady."

"Like hell there's not." She said scathingly. "You hunt far tonight, child of Aragog. Too far, as you have met me." She said softly, "I have no quarrel with you unless you choose to have one with me. But I shall not stand aside, you have no right to command me." Her voice was frozen ice as she finished.

"Stand aside Lady. Why do you protect one with the dark mark." Draco automatically looked at his arm where the dark mark rested, Maeve didn't even look surprised.

"Whom I defend is my choice, and no business of yours. Go elsewhere, hunter. You will find no prey here."

"Stand aside or be eaten Lady."

"You know my answer." She said, leveling her blade.

"Are you sure you don't want your wand instead?" She laughed.

"Draco, this is a wand of sorts, and all the wand I'll need." She informed him as the spiders charged at them. When Draco pointed his wand and said his spell, spiders flew to pieces. When she swung her blade, a line of fire flung from it. Draco was starting to understand why she didn't think the forest was dangerous.

When the Acromantulas had scattered, Draco asked her the first of a hundred questions he wanted to ask her. "Why do the Acromantulas call you lady?"

"Can't you ask something I actually want to answer?" She asked, sighing. "Because I am a lady, because I spent a lot of time in this forest when I was in school." She smiled grimly. "It's not the first time I've stood between them and a meal."

"Who was the last one?"

"A werewolf." She said softly. "They didn't try to eat him until morning, when he was human." She grimaced. "Next question?"

"Who's Aragog?"

"The spider who is parent to all of them." She explained, placing her blade into the sheath on her back, the sheath that suspiciously disappeared the instant her blade rested within it.

"Where did you get that sword?"

"I forged it many years ago." She said quietly. "Anything else?" She drew her wand and levitated the bag of manure.

"I have a million questions." He informed her softly as they walked out of the forest.

"You wouldn't like the answers." She muttered darkly, striding to the greenhouse and leaving the bag of manure near the door.

"Isn't it better to know?" He asked as they made their way up to the castle.

"Knowledge comes at a price." She said. "Sometimes it's better not to pay it."

"There's a price for ignorance as well."

"Indeed." Her voice was quiet as they walked in the front gate. "You may leave, thank you." She said gently. "Do try to stay out of trouble, I detest wasting time." She said, her gray eyes meeting his.

That night, long after curfew, Draco wandered the halls. He did not have any true purpose for his meandering, save curiosity. He made his way up from the dungeons carefully, not wishing to be seen. He made it up to the charms corridor before he had to hide in a nearby classroom from Mrs. Norris. Draco had reached the seventh floor when he stopped and through himself behind the statue of Lachlan the Lanky that rested at the stairs between the sixth and seventh floors.

He could hear footsteps as the new teacher and the headmaster walked down the corridor, talking in hushed voices.

"Albus," She said, voice gentle, "I'm sorry but immortality is no blessing and besides, you two had all the time together that he wanted. While your world of sunlight may have been his childhood home, it is his home no longer. He was with us for too long, he will always be an outsider here, he will never belong. And," She said, voice ice, "He chose it."

"I hardly think that-"

"Albus, it doesn't matter." She sighed softly, "What is done is done. Let the past be. He wanted to come here, and so I brought him. My father died, suspiciously, he took care of me as if I were his own, and he loves my sister and brother dearly." She stated simply. "He did not want to live forever, and there are times even I understand that. His decision was the right one, and it was his to make. It is not our place to interfere. Enjoy the time you have Albus," She said gently, "For is that not the way of things?" She asked.

"You have learned a great deal from your time among us." The headmaster stated gravely.

"Yes, more than some would have wished." She said quietly. "I take all of my lessons into consideration." Her voice was a quiet dismissal. "I will see you at breakfast, headmaster."

"You missed lunch, were you ill?"

"Professor, I should think you would know better than to ask that. You will not see me at lunch. Now, if you would, I have much to do before this night is out."

"Goodnight then." He said, and the two went their separate ways, Draco hardly daring to breathe as Maeve Solis swept passed him down the stairs. Draco counted ten minutes out before he stepped out, he would not have liked to have been caught eavesdropping on that particular conversation.

Carefully he crept down the corridor and to the wall where the room of requirement traditionally was. Of course, like anything in Hogwarts, the room occasionally moved. He walked past the blank section of wall, concentrating on Maeve Solis. On his third pass a door appeared and Draco stepped inside.

Inside the room, he found Hermione Granger. She looked up from her reading and stared at him. "Granger?"

"What are you doing here Malfoy?"

"I could ask you the same."

"I'm trying to study." She informed him, he looked at the book.

"_An Outsider's Guide to Pure-Blood Society_?" He asked incredulously, then he looked at it further. "By _Maeve Solis_?" She passed him the book silently and he flipped through it. Wordlessly he handed it back to her and looked at the other books.

"_A Guide to Vampire Society_, _Werewolves and Vampires an Eternal War_, _Long Life and How to Deal_, _Wordless and Wandless: Spells for any Situation_." He read the titles aloud, "All by Maeve Solis..."

"Apparently I wasn't the only one who wanted to learn about her." Granger remarked, watching him. "How was detention?" She asked, smiling.

"Exciting." He said, flipping through _A Guide to Vampire Society_.

"Oh?"

"Yes, we were attacked." He said casually.

"What?"

"I probably learned more about her than you have for all your reading." He informed her, smiling. "Do you know, for all her skills, she doesn't use her wand to fight? She uses a sword, her blade shoots fire."

"She's a vampire." Granger said calmly. "Her sword is Ignis Mucro, the sword of flame." She informed him. Draco tried not to show surprise. "It's amazing what you can learn when you read." She smiled at him.

"Then why do the Acromantulas call her lady?" He asked, eyes on the book.

"What?" She said, shock written on her face. "That..." She trailed off, thinking. "That doesn't make sense." She said finally.

"I doubt that anything about her makes sense." He muttered, folding the book under his arm. "I'll see you in class Granger."

"Hey, Where are you going?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"To my common room, it's late you know." He informed her casually, stepping outside without glancing back to see her reaction.

As he walked out into the corridor he found himself face to face with the young professor, she grinned at him. Standing in front of her, knowing he was going to be in a great deal of trouble, Draco realized for the first time that she was short. She was small, nearly four inches shorter than him, she was thin, willowy, but she moved like someone on top of the world.

"Hello again," She said, smiling brightly. "You know, eavesdropping is a sin." She informed him gravely.

"So is stalking." He said, equally grave, she laughed.

"And who are you implying is guilty of that?" She asked, eyes dancing, he grinned.

"Who do you think?"

"Yourself I would hope." She said, "After all, you did manage to overhear my conversation with the headmaster."

"And?"

"How much have you learned?" She asked, eyes on the book in his arms. "There aren't many copies of that, my people are of myth and shadow, and we prefer it that way."

"A bit." He admitted.

"Not enough." She told him, eyes smiling. "Not yet."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll know." She said softly. "I've no doubt of that." She remarked. "I suppose I'll have to give you detention for being out after hours." Her lips pursed slightly, "I'll leave finding Miss Granger to someone else."

"How-" He began, "Never mind."

"Come along, I'll walk you to your common room."

"You really should give Granger detention, just to be fair..."

"Has anyone ever told you," She began, grinning wickedly, "Life isn't fair." She finished, laughing slightly.

"They might have mentioned it." He said as they walked down the stairs. "When's my detention?"

"Same time as your last." She answered as they reached the bottom of the stairs. As they reached the landing, they encountered none other than the head of Slytherin house, Severus Snape "I suppose you could give him detention for being out after hours, Severus, but it might be redundant since I already have."

"Mr. Malfoy, come along." He ordered. "I will take him from here." Snape informed her.

"As you would." Maeve Solis said cheerfully. "Do try to keep him out of trouble Severus, I'm starting to wonder if he shouldn't have been in Gryffindor." Snape laughed.

"You are joking, yes?" She nodded.

"Quite." She answered, waving to them as she made her way in the opposite direction. Draco hoped she would be going to find Granger, but he doubted it.

"Draco, you would do well not to spend any unnecessary time with Miss Solis." Snape said calmly as they walked.

"I know that."

"No, I don't think you do. If you did you be transferring out of her class immediately and staying the hell away from her." Draco held up the book.

"I don't see how I have much choice Professor." Draco said calmly. "I believe you know the options I was given?"

"Indeed." Snape said curtly. "Be that as it may..."

"I risk death no matter, and if I'm going to choose a way to die..." He let his voice trail off, leaving Snape with the silent implications.

"You don't know what she's capable of." Snape informed him. "The Dark Lord is...frightening, yes. She is just as bad." Draco looked at his teacher skeptically. "If not worse." Snape finished darkly.

"You'll forgive me if I don't believe you?"

"I hope she never proves me right." Severus said slowly as they entered the dungeons. "Take care," The potion master said softly, "You play a most dangerous game."

The mark upon his arm seemed to burn into his skin, but watching it he knew it was only his imagination. He pulled down his sleeve as he made his way into his dormitory, unwilling to look at the permanent memento of his father's mistake.


	5. Chapter 4: Pairs and Plans

Chapter 4: Pairs and Plans

The next day started with Physical Education, and his housemates were talking animatedly about it since no one had heard anything. When he entered the classroom, he found an entirely different scene. There were no chairs or desks, the walls were padded, students stared around the room aimlessly. Maeve Solis was nowhere to be found.

The Griffindorks milled about the classroom in confusion, then, in a sudden motion that startled everyone, the doors slammed closed. Maeve Solis appeared sitting on her desk as if she had been there the entire time, and perhaps she had. Draco wasn't sure how she had done it, but didn't suppose it really mattered.

"Hello class." She said, smiling cheerfully at them. "It's a lovely morning isn't it?" She asked casually. No one answered her, no one seemed awake enough to. "Right, to business then." She said, hopping down from her desk.

"Pair up with someone of the same gender and approximate size, preferably from another house." She instructed smoothly, no one moved. "Now." She waved her wand and people slid into lines facing each other. "See, that wasn't so hard." Her smile was ice cold. "You're not going to make me do that again." She said flatly, there was something dark in her eyes that set the hairs on the back of Draco's neck rising.

"Right we're going to start with some basic sparring, no wands." Her smile was warmer. "If I remember correctly most of you want to punch one another anyway." She remarked, watching the Slytherins and Gryiffindors.

Maeve Solis waved her wand and they suddenly found themselves weighed down with padding. The stuff was white with colored circles on the chest and sides. "Well," She said, almost sheepishly, I could hardly let you hurt each other could I? Only hit the circles, kicks and punches are legal only on the circles." She said, "Right, on my whistle, three, two, one." She blew a piercing whistle and Draco grinned at the boy in front of him. Potter grinned back.

After ten minutes, Maeve allowed those who didn't wish to spar to sit outside the lines and to push-ups and the like. She was, Draco decided, completely brilliant. She had eliminated the problems that would have arose had she attempted to make the two feuding houses work together and she had allowed alternatives for the kids that would rather sit on there own (of which Granger was one, he noted with interest) she had eliminated nearly all of the potential problems. Although, it did leave him wondering what she did with the classes that didn't want to knock the stuffing out of each other.

When they left for charms, everyone was talking animatedly about the class, both Draco and Granger stayed after.

"Professor?" Granger asked.

"Yes?"

"What do you do with the other classes?" Maeve shrugged.

"Honestly, I haven't the faintest idea, which is rather problematic since I have them next." She smiled cheerfully. "I suppose I'll think of something."

"And why are you here, Draco?"

"To tell you that you're brilliant." He said, grinning. She rolled her eyes.

"If I was brilliant I wouldn't have come so close to getting you killed last night." She said softly, Granger's eyes widened. "I'm not brilliant, just lucky." She said softly, ushering them both out of her classroom.

"She's lying you know." Granger informed him.

"What do you mean?"

"She is brilliant."

"Well yes, I knew that."

"Yeah, but she knows it. So why did she lie? Is there something about the way compliment are handled in old etiquette."

"That's how she learned it, she was brought up in it." He realized slowly, "I don't know if she was born one, or made, but if she was made, she was made young…"

"Born." Granger said as they walked together. "Why are you so interested in her?" Granger asked, her eyes holding his.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Granger rolled her eyes.

"If you must lie, at least tell a convincing one. You're obsessed with her, I want to know why."

"I really-" She grabbed his wrist and pulled up his sleeve, showing the dark mark.

"It's about this, isn't it?" She asked. The bell rang, she sighed.

"Now look what you've done." He said accusingly, pulling his sleeve down.

"Never mind that." She said, pulling him into an empty classroom. "Why are you so interested in Maeve Solis? What does he want with her?"

"You won't like the answer." He told her, smiling bitterly. "You won't like it at all."

"Why are you doing this? Why the hell did you join that sociopath?" She grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"What on earth makes you think I had a choice?" His cold eyes betrayed no emotion.

"What?" He repeated himself. "He would have killed you?" She asked, hesitatingly. Her hands fell from his shoulder, her anger fading as suddenly as it had appeared.

"No." He said flatly. "He would have tortured and killed everyone that I cared about in front of me. Then, he would have killed me." She gasped. "I wouldn't do that to my family or friends."

"I'm going to help you."

"What?" She repeated herself. "Why on earth are you planning to do something so stupid Granger?" He asked.

"Because you need it." He opened his mouth to argue but she cut him off. "You need me. You need the information I can get from the order of the phoenix. Most of all, you need another person for any plan you can come up with."

He opened his mouth again, "Amend that." She said, "Any functional plan you come up with." He stared at her. "What? I haven't spent all these years keeping Harry and Ron on the right track for nothing."

"Granger, why on earth do you want to help me? What would Weasley and Potter say if they found out? What would your dear Order of the Phoenix think?"

"They'd get over it."

"Not this Granger, helping a confirmed Death Eater, they wouldn't get over that. They'd throw you out if they knew, and you wouldn't have anywhere safe to go. Helping me means having both sides wanting you dead, not just one."

"I don't care." She said, emphasizing each word. "I'm not the brightest witch of the age for nothing." She informed him. "I was raised to do the right thing, no matter what and helping you is the right thing." He snorted. "Besides, Harry would approve, he trusts my judgment."

"And the other half?"

"Ron? Ron would throw a tantrum for at least six months, but I've gotten rather used to those." She said flatly. He supposed she must have, it would have taken someone far stupider than Draco to miss the youngest Weasley male's frequent tantrums.

"I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this insanity, am I?" He said finally.

"No. You're not." She said brightly.

"How are you going to explain missing class?"

"I felt ill." Draco shrugged, it was as good an excuse as any.

"What do you want from me Granger?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Nobody does something for nothing."

"You live in a world like that? No wonder you're so messed up."

"I'm messed up? You hang out with the two biggest airheads in the school just because they're the only people who treat you semi-decent."

"And what's wrong with that? At least they know me. At least they do treat me decent. At least they care!"

"Do they know you, really know you?" He asked softly. "And Potter's the only one who treats you decently, though I figure they both care."

"What do you mean? Of course they know me."

"And you haven't had to dumb down that brilliant mind of yours even a little bit? You haven't realized that both of them, even precious Harry Potter is intimidated by a girl that much smarter than him."

"So what?"

"That mind of yours if everything to you, it is who you are, and if they don't know about it, don't realize it's depth, how can they ever hope to know you?"

"Shut up! Just shut up!" She was crying. At a loss for what to do, Draco did the only thing he could think of and put an arm around the girl who was willing to risk everything for him, and held her as she cried.

"Why do you have to be right?" She asked finally.

"It's a curse. You know that." He informed her, dropping his mask a little to let her see a small bit of true emotion. "They don't like people who are right all the time, or so often that it might as well be."

"How much do you dumb yourself down?" She asked, sitting down on one of the desks and wiping the tears from her face.

"More than I'd like." He answered honestly. "More than you apparently." She shrugged. "You are bright Hermione, and your intuitive, but for some reason you ignore it."

"What?"

"You take a little information and see the entire picture, where most people need far more information. When you get all the information the way others do, you have to answer with a textbook answer because you can't process it with the way you think." He concluded.

"What?"

"A theory I've been playing with for a while." He explained, shrugging. "It might be easier if you ignored half the information. You'd be wrong more often, but since you're right nine times out of ten, it shouldn't make much difference."

"I'll try that." She said slowly. "I think you're brighter than me."

"No." He said, "I suppose you spend summer's catching up on the studies you would have been doing in a normal muggle school?" She nodded. "I do similarly."

"But-"

"You can't just summon a bridge into existance Hermione, you have to understand how it works. Just because Muggles use it, doesn't make Math a waste of time."

"Most wizards don't see it like that."

"I've studied more specific things, whereas you've studied generalized curriculum, we've got some major holes in our educations, but they're different ones."

"There is that." She agreed, smiling wryly.

"You do a good job of pretending to be happy." He remarked, fishing for more information. He had never had an opportunity to really analyze her, to confirm any of his suspicions.

"So do you." She stated. "Is pure-blood society really that hostile?" He nodded. "Then why live in it?"

"Where else would I live?" He asked casually, sitting across from her on another desk. "It's my world, it's also the place where I can make the most difference."

"You want to change the world? Who would have guessed?"

"Not many." He said, shrugging. "And what of you, will you change the world?"

"I'll settle for staying alive."

"It's a notion." He agreed cheerfully. "The Dark Lord gave me two options, not one." He said softly.

"What?"

"The other was killing Dumbledore."

"Oh, that explains a lot."

"It should." He remarked. "Of course, as interesting as this is becoming, I'm not sure murder wouldn't be healthier."

"That bad?"

"You heard her, she did nearly get me killed once already." He said quietly. "Professor Snape thinks she's scarier than the Dark Lord. Mother says she's insane. Dumbledore let her teach here for some reason, but Dumbledore wants something from her."

"What do you mean?"

"Dumbledore's manipulative, she wouldn't be here if he didn't think something would be gained by it."

"She's not just a good teacher?"

"I overheard a discussion between him and our good new professor." He informed her. "They were talking about someone they both know, someone who lived wherever Maeve Solis was, who recently returned here. Someone who apparently chose to remain mortal."

"I wonder..." She started, "Go on." She said finally.

"I'm not sure what it was Dumbledore wanted from her, but she refused. The man, whomever he was, seems to have been a father to her, not her actually father who died suspicously." She frowned, "Her words, not mine."

"I'll have to do some research, but it shouldn't be to hard to figure out." She said, "It would help to have an aproximation of her age."

"I was informed she was at least fifty years my senior."

"But..she went to Hogwarts with Professor Snape."

"But, she's a vampire, do they age the same way?"

"I don't know, I'll check." She decided. "It shouldn't be to hard to find out who they were talking about."

"Now, we've got to stop meeting like this."

"It is suspicious." She agreed.

"So we either need a way to hide it, or an excuse."

"The only class we're both taking that Ron and Harry aren't is etiquette."

"The only class you're not going to know everything before hand, convenient." He remarked, "So I'll tutor you. She's right, it could come in very useful."

"You were eavesdropping."

"I've been informed that it's a sin." He said, not looking guilty at all.

"How on earth could one possibly justify you tutoring me, there are so many reasons that it's illogical..."

"Lesson one, Layer the disception. That's what makes them foolproof." He instructed, "Tell them you're trying to find out if I'm actually a death eater."

"And you're going to claim?"

"I'm trying to convince you that hanging out with Ron and Harry is stupid and you should attempt to transfer to Ravenclaw because you're the brains of the operation and the two of them would be totally lost without you and that would be hysterically funny."

"That's...unfortunately true."

"The best lies are those that use the truth." He explained. "However, three layers of desception really aren't enough."

"What else is there?"

"I'm going to the brightest witch of the age for help poisoning Parkinson." She laughed. "I'm serious." He informed her, "Any help you can provide would be lovely."

"Is she still stalking you?"

"Do you have a repellant?"

"I'll write to the twins." She said, still laughing.

"There are a lot of options for you involving information, for example, _dear_ auntie Bellatrix." He grimaced at the words. "If you can't think of anything, you're giving me advice on how to get a date with Ginny because you think it would be great to end a blood feud." He mimed gagging. "Worst, absolute worst, tell them we're secretly dating." She shuddered.

"Nothing personal..."

"Believe me, I understand." He said, grimacing. "I don't like the notion either, so do try not to run out of ideas." He suggested.

"Please, do likewise." He grinned.

"But Granger, unlike you, I'm a natural." She rolled her eyes.

"And an arrogant..."

"Changed your mind about helping me yet?"

"That's what you're trying!" She said angrily. "It's not going to work." He shrugged.

"It was worth a try." She glared in her best imitation of Molly Weasley, but since he just kept smiling, she assumed she hadn't gotten it right yet.

"I will see you later." She said sharply, standing up.

"Enjoy your detention."

"How did you-"

"I have another one with our wonderful new professor tonight, she caught me leaving the room of requirement."

"Oh." She said, picking up her things. "Try not to be too late for class."

"I'm not planning on going." He informed her as she started to leave the classroom. He watched as she pulled herself back inside, closed the door, grabbed him and his backpack and pulled him to the window.

"Filch." She climbed onto the window sill and Draco watched the doorknob turn. Sighing, he followed her out the window as the door came open.

After both of them had climbed down, he looked at her and raised his eyebrows. "Still going to try to go back to class?" She shook her head. "Lost cause apparently." He laughed.

"Did you-"

"I had no idea." She scowled. "Later Granger." He said, walking out towards a first floor window and climbing inside.


	6. Chapter 5:Daisies and Deviance

Chapter Five: Daisies and Deviance

"If I was doing what I wanted, I'd be in the forest figuring out what the hell's coming, as is, I'm here, dealing with your unfortunate habit of wasting my time." He sat across from her, silent. "You may as well learn something." She said, handing him two books, the first was a dictionary, the second was written in a language he had never heard of.

"The language is all but forgotten, the dictionary will help you translate it."

"What is it?"

"The title? You'll notice it has none. It's a history of my people, it writes itself." She explained, "Well? What are you waiting for? Start reading."

Through a lot of tedious work and page flipping, Draco finally managed to get some of it translated, a process made more complicated by his lack of knowledge of verb conjugations.

In the time before the clever little monkeys came down from the trees and learned to fight back, we were there. When the monkeys same down from the trees, when they fought back and our numbers dwindled, there a came a queen. She was Orfhlaith, and she led us to change our shape, to look like the ones who walked in the daylight. She led us out from the shadows and into the light, led us to change our forms and led us to hunt again. Orfhlaith taught us in the beginning and led us for nearly ten mellenia. She is numbered our first great queen.

"What exactly are your people?" He asked, wondering if she would answer, if she would lie, and if she could do it convincingly.

"You may go." She said simply. He set the two books down on her desk and walked out of her office. It was odd, he realized, that she sat there, working on paperwork when she gave no homework. It wasn't anything important, just another little thing in the mystery that was Maeve Solis.

"How was detention?" He jumped slightly as Granger's voice drifted down to him from a window ledge where she was sitting.

"Boring." He said, shrugging. "Yours?"

"The same," She said casually, "But mine involved slugs." She informed him, "Have you any ideas?" She asked, "I forgot to ask you, what exactly are you trying to do with her anyway?"

Draco sighed. "Hermione," He said patiently, "You really jump into things, don't you?" He remarked, half irritated, half amused. "He gave me a choice." He told her, sitting next to her and spelling the surrounding area against eavesdroppers.

"Well!"

"He wants me to...kill Dumbledore or seduce Maeve Solis."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "You're...You're serious." She said softly, "But it doesn't make sense."

"I know." He replied.

"Dumbledore...that I understand, sort of. Dumbledore is the one wizard that he ever feared, but how would he expect you to accomplish that?"

"He doesn't, he expects me to die." Draco explained. "He is angry, with my family, and he wants to punish them."

"But, Professor Solis..."

"I have been warned," His lips curled slightly, "That Maeve Solis is dangerous, as bad as the one who gave me this..." He drew up his sleeve so that the dark mark shone black against his pale skin. "So perhaps, it is another fools errand. Of course, I do not intend to die."

"She is a vampire..." Hermione said softly, "But perhaps it's more than that."

"Perhaps, I suppose we'll find out." He said slowly, "It's late, and we should not be seen out together Granger, people might get the wrong idea," He smiled slightly, "Or worse, the right one." He waved his wand and the spells against eavesdroppers faded.

"Draco, I hardly expected to find you here, and in such company."

"And I hardly expected to find you wondering about at such an hour, Blaise." Hermione jumped up, startled.

"And you're not going to tell me what's going on?"

"The prefects are required to create a fake haunted house for the Halloween dance this year," She said, matter-of-factly. "I figured, who better to ask for advice on how to frighten people. It's not really my area of expertise."

"Oh, well, that is clever." Blaise acknowledged. "But of all the slytherins-"

"Am I required to explain all of my decisions to you Zabini? I think not." She said primly, "Now, if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your nose out of other people's business." She said sharply, "I'll see you in class." She said, walking away.

"She's gotten harsher." Blaise observed, "For a Gryffindor that was downright nasty."

"She's not nearly as shy as she seems." Draco agreed.

"But why didn't she ask me...I'm a prefect too." Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Jealous?"

"Hardly." Draco raised an eyebrow slightly.

"If you say so..."

"You're not implying-"

"Implying? Would I do such a thing? I'm hurt."

"I do not like the mud-blood." Blaise said firmly.

"It wouldn't be a bad decision," Draco remarked as they made their way to the common room, "She's brilliant enough for her blood status to be forgiven, and she's learning pure-blood etiquette."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Depending on the outcome of this war, the brains of the golden trio might be in high demand."

"They might indeed." He admitted. "Of course, they might well be a death sentence as well."

"As if Granger couldn't keep herself alive," Draco said scornfully, "Or anyone else she chose for that matter."

"You seem rather keen on the idea."

"Hardly. Can you imagine, why it would break Pansy's heart." Blaise laughed slightly.

"As if you care." Draco shrugged.

"Fair enough. At any rate, my sights are elsewhere."

"If I may ask..." Draco shook his head. "It's hardly fair you know."

"Since when is the world fair? I'm afraid I'd missed the fact."

"We could help each other." Draco shrugged.

"We'll see." Blaise had to be content with that, as they entered the common room beneath the lake.

"Draco!" Pansy rose from her seat and draped herself around him.

"Get off." He said softly, gently, his voice as cold as ice.

"But Draco!"

"Get off." He repeated, voice still cold and emotionless.

"Well, I've no need to waste my time where I'm not appreciated." She said sharply and went to drape herself over Blaise.

"There's no need for you to embarrass yourself further Pansy." Blaise said, smoothly removing her. "It's obvious Drakey here isn't interested, and just as obvious that you aren't either."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked indignantly.

"Nothing my dear girl, absolutely nothing." Blaise replied, leaving her to stand there, confused and angry as they left.

"Now, Drakey-"

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that?"

"You're simply going to have to start bringing me to your little meetings with Granger."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because you don't want me to call you Drakey?"

"You won't." He smirked, "Because if you do, the whole school will assume you're gay, Blaisey." He said, smirk widening. "You know, that has a nice ring to it, rhymes with Daisy."

"You wouldn't-" Draco just smirked.

"Whatever, you will take me, because the two of you need my help for whatever it is you're actually working on."

"But you already know what it is we're working on."

"I know the lie that Granger so cleverly thought up, but as I said, it's not logical for her to be working with you, so it must be something else."

"Right, of course, absolutely."

"Don't be snide." He said, frowning, "I'm right, and you do need my help, much as you like to ignore it, I am useful." He shrugged, "Besides anything that could get the two of you working together has to be interesting."

"You don't know the half of it." Draco said, letting his smirk turn into a small smile, "Fine, Blaisey, you can come." Blaise smirked. "Blaisey's gone crazy, he's mad as a daisy, obssessing for Granger, the man is a danger," He sang in a sing-song voice. Blaise threw a pillow at him.

"Shut it." Draco laughed and stopped singing. "Stop humming!" Draco laughed and stopped, everyone had a limit, and Draco had no intentions of pushing Blaise past his, not today at any rate.

"What's he doing here?"

"Well," Draco said, grinning, "You said I need all the help I could get..."

"He's a Slytherin."

"So am I."

"This is the worst idea you have ever had."

"Worse than becoming a death eater?"

"YES!" She practically shouted. "You're an idiot, do you want the entire school to know what we're doing?"

"I'm impressed with the depth of your faith in me Granger." Blaise said, sitting down on the desk.

"Why are you here?"

"I wanted to know what it actually was that could make the two of you work together, and the easiest way to find out was to help."

"How much did you tell him?" She demanded.

"Not a thing, I thought it best to leave that to the perfect prefect."

"Your affair, your decision, so you're going to tell him." She informed him firmly.

"I'm trying to seduce a teacher."

"Oh, okay then."

"You're not surprised?" Hermione asked.

"Well, for Draco, it's not exactly normal, but completely believable. Do you think you'll get higher grades from her if he succeeds?"

"You haven't asked which teacher." Draco observed.

"It's obvious." Blaise rolled his eyes, "Your choices are rather limited, yes?" He asked, "Besides, Maeve Solis is pretty, beautiful if you like that type."

"If you like that type?" Draco asked. "You don't?"

"My type is hardly your concern, unless...?" Draco shook his head, Hermione looked confused.

"Slughorn's Halloween Party!"

"What?"

"Slughorn's having a Halloween Party, the day before the official one, remember?" She asked Blaise.

"So?"

"Rumor has it, and when I say rumor, I mean Slughorn's practically advertising it, they'll be a vampire there."

"I'm missing the significance of that."

"She's a vampire." Hermione clarified, Draco had the pleasure of watching Blaise's eyes widen in surprise.

"Is that even allowed?" Blaise muttered.

"We had a werewolf, didn't we?" Hermione asked, rolling her eyes."

"It would provide some valuable information, wouldn't it?" Draco remarked, bringing them back on topic.

"Even if it doesn't, you can try to get her drunk."

"Don't try to get her drunk, try to get her jealous." Blaise suggested calmly.

"What?" Hermione asked. "Why? How?" Blaise rolled his eyes.

"My, Granger, you are naive aren't you?" He observed, "It's a really old technique." He informed her, "Draco here will get physical with someone, simple, effective, and it will allow us to gauge her reaction."

"Draco's not part of the slug club."

"So one of us will have to take him."

"I'm not." She said firmly, "Nor am I doing anything physical with him." She informed them both.

"Shy are we?" Blaise asked, she turned crimson.

"You'd better have a good explanation for it if I am, because Harry will be there."

"No he won't, Potter's ignored every slug club party that's been held."

"The whole school will know!"

"So do it somewhere secluded." Blaise suggested. "Quit complaining, you won't have to take him as a date, that would be hard to explain."

"Make it look as though we've both had too many drinks first."

"I think I will have too many drinks first!" Blaise chuckled. "What!" She asked, frustrated. "Just because some of us don't go around-"

"Relax Granger, No one was imply that you did, or should."

"You'd make half our year flunk their exams if you did though."

"What!" She asked, outraged.

"The male half." Draco clarified.

"That's unreasonable, I hardly think that all the males in our-"

"I didn't say the male half, nor did I mean it. I'm sure some of our female classmates would appreciate it as well. Pansy would, wouldn't you say so, Draco?"

"Pansy doesn't really count, considering she'd probably sleep with anyone, including Hermione here, to try and get me jealous at this point."

"But it wouldn't work...would it?" Draco laughed, Blaise didn't as Hermione looked from one to the other in horror.

"It might." Draco observed.

"Why can't the two of you kiss then?" Blaise sputtered at the suggestion.

"Because it would be counterproductive if she thought I was homosexual." She sighed.

"Don't you know any other girls?" It was a hypothetical question, she knew he did, she also knew that they weren't in the slug club.

"Granger, why so worried about it? Is there someone else you'd rather be kissing?"

"What makes you think I want to be kissing anyone?" She asked sharply, Draco and Blaise exchanged a look but didn't answer her.

"Have you been teaching Granger the traditional dances? She might as well learn them, and it could come in useful."

"Yes, it might that." Draco agreed, watching with interest as Hermione turned crimson and looked at her shoes.

"Why Granger, you match your griffindor tie."

"Oh Shut up!" She ordered.

"What would people say if they saw Griffindor's gold girl behaving in such a manner? Why they'd be shocked."

"Shut up! Just because I read and spend a lot of time actually doing my school work doesn't mean you can just walk over me Zabini!" She had drawn her wand and it rested about three inches from his nose.

"Easy," He put his hands up, "Can't a guy be friendly?"

"If that's what you consider friendly-"

"A little bit of teasing-"

"You're a jerk."

"Can't hurt anyone."

"Do you even-"

"Why do you-"

"think before you speak?"

"Take everything so seriously?"

"Funny as this is, I'd rather not watch the two of you blast each other to bits, wands away if you're going to argue." Draco said calmly.

"Shut up." Hermione ordered. "I'll hex him if I want to."

"If she hexes me, I'm going to defend myself, even if she is a girl."

"No you're not." He informed him, "Because she's not going to hex you."

"Like hell-" Draco waved his wand slightly and used a nonverbal spell to take away both of their wands. "Hey!"

"Now, was that really necessary?"

"Go ahead, you can argue all you want now." He informed them, naturally, neither of them said a word, simply glared at him.

"I want my wand back, now." She informed him. Draco casually flicked his wand and theirs flew back to them.

"Of course, I'd be delighted." He said cheerfully, "I'll see you for your much needed relationship counseling next week." He closed the door, hearing the sound of a hex hit it as he left. He didn't run away, but he did hurry. He had no desire to be on the other end of Hermione Granger's wand, her fist had been bad enough.

"After hours, again Draco?" Maeve Solis asked, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Do you just wait for me?" He asked, frustrated.

"If you're not careful, I'm going to have to conclude that something's going on, and then, being naturally curious, I'm going to have to find out what." She said.

"So I have a secret girlfriend." He suggested, "What of it?" She laughed.

"That wouldn't be funny if I actually believed you." She said. "The truth, if you please, otherwise, don't tell me."

"And you'll be content to just leave it?"

"For the time being." She paused, "Detention of course, with Mr. Filch I think." Draco looked at her questioningly.

"I can find a more constructive use of my time then babysitting you. Besides, I've work to be done."

"What work could you possibly be doing? You never plan lessons and you never give homework, yet you've always got papers on your desk."

"Does it matter?"

"Yes!"

"I'm sorry, I believe you took my polite phrasing as an actual question, it was an order to mind your own business." She said coldly.

"I don't take orders well."

"Obviously." She said cuttingly. "Go to your common room, I have not the time nor the patience to deal with you." He watched as she pulled a silver flask from her hip and took a long drink from it. "Well? What are you waiting for? Go."

"Professor?" He asked, stepping closer, "We had a teacher who used to carry a flask and drink out of it all the time, it was full of polyjuice potion, he wasn't really who he claimed to be."

"Yes, I know the story."

"What's in your flask professor?" She laughed. "I'm not joking."

"It's not any of your business."

"It's everyone's business if you aren't what you seem." Her eyes met his and it felt as if he was looking into the coldest winter.

"You overstep."

"What's in the flask that you're so eager to hide it? Polyjuice potion? Alcohol? What is it that has you so upset?" Her laugh was ice cold.

"And why are you so eager to find out?" She asked, her eyes dancing, holding both danger and something else that he couldn't identify. "Leave a girl some secrets." She suggested, "It's only polite."

"I bet you broke the rules all the time when you were in school. You were probably out past hours more often than not."

"True enough."

"Then why do you worry so much about enforcing rules you never cared about as a child?"

"Because I understand the reasons behind them better now. Because the rules are meant to protect, something I never needed."

"And the rest of us do?"

"Things have changed and the world is no longer as safe, even here, the old things are waking up." She spoke softly, seriously. "Now, get!" She commanded. Sighing, Draco left.


	7. Chapter 6: Sweet Suicide

Getting Professor Solis to Slughorn's party hadn't been as difficult as they had expected. It seemed, she had been invited. "Professor? May I ask you about Professor Slughorn? He seems to have...favorites."

"Professor Slughorn has issues of his own making." Maeve explained to Blaise. "Yes, he has favorites. But not because he likes them, because he thinks they'll be useful." She said coldly, "He's rather obvious about using people. Not a bad person, and not a bad way to meet people, so long as you treat it for what it is."

"He taught when you went to school here, didn't he? Were you in the slug club?" She laughed.

"I skipped his parties, he didn't appreciate it." She said cheerfully. "I suppose I'll have to show up for this one, since I really have no excuse." She sighed. "Waste of time, but there's nothing for it." She had said before dismissing the class.

"I can't imagine Slughorn wasting time on someone who was just going to become a teacher, so what is it that makes her special?"

"That is the question, isn't it." Draco agreed.

Slughorn's party was a disaster. It had started bad and had only gotten worse. Hermione and Blaise had been unable to get Draco into the party, so he had lurked in the upper corridors watching a small hand mirror Hermione had bewitched to show the party.

Hermione had gone to the party with none other than Cormac Mclaggen, and Draco had seen, through the mirror, Blaise's jaw drop in horror. His own jaw had dropped when he had seen Potter, for the first time all year, Potter had decided to attend one of Slughorn's parties. The only thing that made it tolerable was the fact that Potter went with Looney Lovegood.

Everything had seemed normal until, Maeve Solis had come in. The wizard Eldred Worple and his vampire friend Sanguini had been talking to Hermione when Maeve had entered. Sanguini had walked over to her, and knelt about three feet before her, his head barely brushing the ground, his hands palm down on the floor.

Maeve's eyes had flashed winter. "Get up." She commanded, voice ice. "When you are among humans, behave as they do."

"Lady, it is a pleasure as always." Sanguini rose smoothly and kissed her hand, her face betrayed nothing save the ice cold anger that had shone when she had seen him.

"I had not expected to see you so soon." She said, guiding him to the edge of the room. "You've gone and made a scene." She informed him coldly. "You always do, don't you?"

"It's a talent." He said, "Are you still angry with me?"

"Sanguini, It's going to be a few millenia before I get over it. I told you I didn't want to see you."

"I couldn't possibly have known you'd be playing house with a bunch of-"

"Sangu! I don't want to hear it. I know damn well that you keep tabs on where I am. And I've told you not to lie to me."

"Lady, how could you say such a thing about your old teacher."

"Don't make me laugh." She spun around, her black gown twirling as she strode out of the room, her hair streaming back.

"Professor?" Hermione ran after her, she found her standing by the stair to the next floor. "Professor!"

"I do not take kindly to being set up, Hermione." Maeve did not look at her face, instead, she stood half facing Hermione, eyes on the assending stair. "Seeing Sanguini again is very much pouring salt upon old wounds."

"What did he do?"

"He betrayed me." Maeve said simply.

"You're his liege." It was not a question.

"Yes."

"Professor?" Hermione asked softly, "Who are you?"

Maeve turned to face her then, her eyes no longer angry. She reached over and put an arm on her shoulder. "I was once the princess of the Kingdom of Night, I was once the second daughter of one of our greatest queens." Slowly, Maeve pressed her lips against Hermione's. "Now, my mother and my sister are dead." Maeve walked away, her dress swirling around her as she left.

"What the hell?" Hermione said, touching her fingers to her lips.

"Well Damn." Draco said, putting the mirror away. Draco heard footsteps behind him and turned to face none other than Argus Filch. "Damn." He repeated.

"You're going to regret seeing me again, Sanguini." Her voice was soft, gentle, soothing as she spoke to him.

"Lady," She put her finger to his lips.

"No." She said, "I don't want to hear it, whatever it is you have to say to me." He nodded and said nothing. "I am so very weary," She stared out of her window. "This war wearies me, and this game drains my strength."

"Then why play?"

"Because as great as the risk is the potential for gain."

"Is it worth abandoning your duties? You must remember your people."

"I could never forget." She said quietly. "I gave up the person I loved for them, because I knew it was the best thing I could do for them."

"You are so focused on your people, so worried for this war that you've abandoned your family."

"And what would you know of that, Sangu? If you've gone near Megan or Aisling..."

"Of course not, I'm hardly suicidal."

"I've always had difficulty believing it." She laughed. "I've never understood, how can you do this, Sanguini?"

"I knew the choice I made." He said,, stepping behind her and wrapping his arms around her. "I knew the price of failure." His lips brushed against her neck. "I hadn't expected this, but how could I object, Maeve? My alternative is death."

"Is that why?" She asked, her eyes still on her window.

"I like you. I like doing this with you. You are what you are Maeve, and that's intoxicating." He trailed butterfly kisses across her skin. "I regret that your sister's ruling forces you to break your decision."

"Which one?" She asked quietly, turning to look at him.

"Never to let anyone in your bed who wasn't already in your heart."

"I never broke that one with you Sangu." She said quietly. "I don't hate you, and you will always have a place in my heart. I can't forgive you, and I can't trust you, but I don't hate you."

"Then your sister made a mistake in sparing my life."

"My sister believed that a good queen rules with her head, that everything she does is based upon wisdom. She wasn't wrong. But a great queen leads with both her head and her heart, if you do not love your people, than you are nothing. And you must have that same passion in everything that you do for them."

"Practicing your next speech?"

"Hardly." Maeve said, turning to face him. "As you said, I am what I am. I'm hardly perfect, but then, I don't really need to be." She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips against his. "Do I?" She murmured softly her lips only centimeters from his.

"Your people love you as you are." His hands undid the clasps of her dress.

"And that's enough." She said quietly, as her dress fell to the floor.

Draco decided he would definitely thank Hermione for the mirror. It was becoming more and more useful. Of course, Draco didn't plan to tell her what use he was putting it to.


	8. Chapter 7: Impossible

"There's no use, he didn't give you a suicide mission, just an impossible one." Hermione informed him, "She's a lesbi-"

"No she's not." Draco said flatly.

"How would either of you know?" Blaise asked, watching both of them intently. Hermione turned crimson.

"How do you know Granger?" Draco asked, watching her turn to examine her shoes.

"Never mind that!"

"No, Granger, I think you need to tell us. It could be important."

"She kissed me, okay!"

"What?" Blaise said, surprised. "When, why?"

"After I followed her out of the party, she answered some of my questions, then she kissed me and walked away." Hermione was still blushing. "Your turn, Draco."

"Ah, well, you see..."

"Quit dithering and tell us!"

"I was watching the mirror and-"

"Who was she with?" Blaise asked.

"Sanguini."

"You weren't!" Hermione said, shocked, "That is so twisted." She said, "That is not what I made that for!"

"And?"

"Would you mind making me one?"

"Blaise!"

"Who did you want it keyed to follow?" Draco asked, half amused. Blaise grinned at him, at least he grinned until Granger hit him with her textbook.

"Ouch! For goodness sake Hermione, why did you have to hit me?"

"Because you're being a perv." She said, glaring at both of them. "Now, unless we have anything useful to discuss...?"

"We do." Draco informed her. "What have we learned?"

"She's queen of night."

"What?"

"She inherited the throne of the Kingdom of Night, it answers a lot actually. Slughorn would never waste his time on someone who was only a teacher, but she controls a great deal, not only vampires are part of her kingdom, though it has always been ruled by a vampire."

"That would be the danger element then, and the reason he wants her controlled." Draco observed.

"It may well be a suicide mission." Draco smirked slightly.

"I've no intention of dying." He said quietly. "Shall we leave off planning for a while, if she answered your questions, she's suspicious."

"She's more than suspicious." Hermione said quietly.

"Yes, well, Draco right, we need to lay low for a while."

"You and Blaise should continue working on the pure-blood traditional things that she hasn't covered in class, it may well come in useful." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Yes, that's what everyone's telling me lately."

"I'll leave you two to it then," Draco said, stepping out of the room of requirement. There was still a school wide Halloween party to get ready for.

Draco wasn't sure who's idea it was to celebrate Halloween, but he suspected their new teacher had something to do with it. From what Blaise and Hermione had told him, the idea was to have a "haunted house" at the entrance to the great hall, with the party being held in the hall itself. Among other things, it was a mascaraed party.

Maeve Solis was recognizable, but then, how could she not be? Even behind a mask, her gray eyes seemed to pierce the soul. He had seen her the instant he stepped out of Hogwarts' rather pathetic haunted house. Her dress was a deep purple, her mask matching it, what was startling, was her hair, the precise shade of her gown. She leaned against a wall, sipping from that silver flask she carried and Draco made his way over to her.

"Good evening, Professor." He said.

"And to you as well, Draco." She said, placing the cap on her flask.

"And again, I must ask, what is it that you're drinking?"

"Can you blame me for not trusting the punch? It was made by volunteer first years. Even I'm not that brave." He laughed.

"Thanks for the warning, I hadn't known." Her lips curved into a small smile.

"Well, I don't doubt someone will manage to put alcohol in it, but until then," She raised her flask.

"Professor, I think you're supposed to try and prevent that."

"Oh, probably." She shrugged. "Bit of a bother really."

"How have classes been?" He asked, not wanting to resort to the classical discussion of the weather.

"Interesting, I've noticed that Miss Granger seems to know more and more about what I'm teaching each day, and with less and less help from me." She looked at him questioningly.

"Not my doing." He admitted.

"Not directly, or not at all?"

"Not directly."

"Zabini?" Draco nodded. "Interesting indeed." She decided. "I trust you've enjoyed physical education with the Gryffindors?" He nodded.

"Definitely." He said, grinning at her. "What house were you in? You seem to know a lot about the house rivalry."

"Gryffindor." She said, watching him with amusement.

"Really? And after what you pulled on the train I was convinced it had to be Slytherin. You seem to get on well with Professor Snape too..."

"Severus and I go back, had to do with knowing the same people. And as far as pulling things on people, you Slytherins hardly have the monopoly."

"No, it would seem we don't." He smiled ruefully. "But whatever possessed you to do that?"

"Curiosity, it's a flaw." She said cheerfully. "What do you suppose that boy is doing up there?" She asked, gesturing to one of the torches that had been attached to the wall.

Sure enough, when Draco looked, he saw a Gryffindor, the one that carried a camera everywhere. "I suspect he had help getting there." She sighed.

"I've no doubt." She drew her wand and levitated the boy down, he ran up to her, thanking her profusely. "Run along, the nights young and so are you." She said, smiling as she sent him on his way.

"He's not the only one."

"No, I suppose he's not." She said, "I'm afraid I've stolen away some of your time with Miss Parkinson." She smiled as Draco scowled at her. "I'm sure she'll have missed you by now."

"Assuming she's not lost in that pathetic excuse for a haunted house...You weren't responsible for that, were you?"

"You're lucky I don't offend easily."

"Sure you don't." He laughed. "Seriously, with all due respect, it's dreadful. I don't think it'd frighten a kitten."

"Have you ever seen a frightened kitten?"

"Well no..."

"They don't all scare easily. You'd be surprised."

"You still haven't answered the question."

"And?" He sighed.

"Are you going to?"

"I wasn't responsible, Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick were, which is naturally why it's not nearly as interesting as it would have been if left to, say, Severus and myself." We've been quite busy not laughing at it."

"Are you ever going to tell me what's in your flask?"

"Not tonight at any rate." She said, pushing off of the wall. "Go on, you're supposed to be socializing."

"But I am socializing."

"Not with me you're not." She said, and, in the way of her kind,she was gone.

"Draco! Where have you been?" Pansy ran over to him. "I've been looking all over for you." She complained. Draco shrugged.

"Ah, Draco, I see Pansy has managed to locate you." Zabini said, he was dashing in black clothes and matching black mask. "I was just planning on going to get drinks if you want to come."

"I've been warned against the punch." Draco told him, "so I think I'll watch you drink it first.

"On second thought..." Blaise leaned back against the wall. "I'm not really all that thirsty."

"What's up with Granger, she looks...I don't know, agitated." Draco and Blaise looked to see what Pansy meant.

"You're right." Draco said, surprised.

"Well yes. It does happen sometimes you know." Pansy said as Blaise pushed away from the wall and made his way over to Hermione who was fidgeting nervously. "What's he doing?"

"Hermione, what are you doing out here, dressed like that and all alone?" Blaise asked, she opened her mouth to say something decidedly rude but Blaise continued. "I can hardly leave you in this condition, will you dance with me?" He offered her his arm and she took it, blushing.

"Alright." She said quietly as she let him lead her onto the dance floor.

"Now, Hermione, what has you so anxious?" He asked after they had been dancing for a while.

"What? Oh, right, I'd almost forgotten. Aberforth." It was Blaise's turn to be confused.

"Hermione you're-"

"Aberforth," She insisted. "That's who Professor Dumbledore and Professor Solis were discussing, Aberforth Dumbledore."

"I'm still missing the significance."

"Tell Draco. He'll explain." She tried to let go but Blaise held her.

"It would look suspicious if I suddenly went rushing over there. Besides, I'm sure your news can wait a few minutes more. Just this one dance Hermione?"

"Fine." She conceded and let him twirl her around.

"So, why were you standing there all alone?"

"Harry's not speaking to me, and since he's not, neither is Ron." She admitted. "Harry has this map, it shows where anyone inside Hogwarts is."

"And?"

"And Harry's been using it."

"Which means he wanted to know why you were spending so much time with Slytherins? What did you tell him?"

"That you were helping me with etiquette, which is true," She said firmly, "But he thinks that even for school work, I shouldn't be... How was it Ronald phrased it, ah yes, fraternizing with the enemy." Her smile was bitter. Blaise guided her over to a bench and sat her down, sitting beside her he tilted her chin up.

"Forget them." He said quietly, then leaned forward to kiss her on the lips. When he pulled away Hermione opened her mouth, Blaise put a finger to her lips. "Was that so bad Hermione?"

"I shouldn't-"

"But that's why it's so fun." He said reasonably.

"Is that why you're doing this, fun? You don't just randomly kiss people!"

"Hermione, it's hardly random. I wouldn't kiss you if I didn't mean it."

"Really?" He kissed her again and Hermione kissed him back. When they pulled apart, she quietly asked, "What's this mean?"

"Whatever you want it to." Blaise said cheerfully, brushing his lips to hers again.


	9. Chapter 8: Corruption

Okay, Warning, it get's a little more colorful from here. No detail, just implications.

Chapter 8: Corruption

Draco lingered after class, Maeve Solis yawned as she waved her wand, restoring the room to it's typical appearance. It was nearly lunch time. "Professor?" He hesitated in the doorway, not sure if he should speak, or if silence was the better option.

"Yes?" She asked, turning to look at him.

"There's a ball of sorts, during break, a lot of the pure-blood families will be there, I was wondering if you were going?" She shrugged.

"I get an invitation every year, you're mother's hosting it, isn't she?"

"Yes, she's quite excited about it."

"I should at least show my face for a little bit then, It would be nice to see her again, briefly. Very briefly if she's still as obsessive over her projects as I recollect."

"She is." Draco said, grinning. "I'll look forward to seeing you there then, professor." He said, walking out the door.

"Will you indeed?" She asked the silence he left behind.

Maeve was lovely in a dark green gown that brought out the silver of her eyes and accented to stark pallor of her skin. On anyone else, the deathly pale color would have looked sickly, on her it was anything but. She glided over to Draco and his mother.

"Narcissa," She acknowledged, curtsying to his mother who did likewise, "A pleasure as always."

"Indeed it is, Maeve." His mother said quietly. "I believe you have my son in your class," She gestured to Draco.

"It is so." Maeve said as he took her hand and bowed over it formally, his lips brushing her cool skin.

"You are well, Professor?"

"And you're going to call me that, after reminding me that I should attend?" She asked bemused, recovering her hand. "That's hardly proper." She reminded him.

"And what should I call you then?"

"By my name, I should think you would know it." Draco opened his mouth to respond, but as he did so familiar music began to play and Draco heard some very impressive cursing from Maeve.

"Will you dance?" He offered her his hand, her face was soon an icy mask but ice froze in her eyes.

"Of course." She let him move her to the dance floor where other couples gathered. "You know I hate this." She muttered quietly, her lips bare centimeters from his ears as his hands found their way to her waist.

"And that's what makes it fun." His lips brushed lightly past her cheek as he spun her around, her nails gently scraping his skin as they passed his arm.

"And you think this is fun?" Her body brushed past his in the spinning, swirling dance. Skin pressed against spin in the whirl of the dance, muscled tensed. "You're a fool, Draco."

"Oh?" She shivered slightly as his breathe brushed past her neck.

"A fool." She repeated, her hand sliding down his arm as she spun in his hand. "Did you really think," He held her in his arms, her back against his chest before she completely turned and faced him once again. "I wouldn't notice?"

"Notice what?" Her laugh was the silver tinkling of a thousand bells.

"Draco," She said scathingly, "You couldn't have been any less subtle is you'd put a love potion in my flask." His mask never faltered as they moved through the steps of a dance as old as his people.

"You wound me." He said, noticing the faces of those around them, noticing that her words had been heard, that those who heard bore the same mark as he himself did.

Again her chiming laughter, He pulled her close ignoring for a moment the traditional steps, "You have no idea what you have done." He hissed in her ear. "Do you ever think before you speak?" He let her slip back into the routine of the dance steps, the anger never marking his face.

"What?" Confusion, written plainly, though he knew it was written there for him to see.

"You don't think that people listen? If you know so much, than you know why."

"I thought perhaps-," Her head shook minutely, "But I was never certain." He saw grief in her cold gray eyes before her fingers slid from his and she was whirled away into another's arms as the dancer's rotated about.

The dance spun around him, and Draco moved automatically, his thought's resting on a single imminent possibility; death. It was not long before Maeve was in his arms again and the dance was near it's end, as the final notes played and the dancer's bowed to one another, she took his hand.

Quietly, she led him to one of the balconies off of the room, so subtle she was that he doubted anyone had even seen. Then he started suddenly, for she knelt at his feet, her back straight, her eyes to the grains of the wooden floor.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions, or so they say." She said softly, "But I cannot even claim that mine were that. Your charge was right, I did not think and I fear I have done you evil in that."

"Pass the night with me, Professor?" It was half question, half command, softened by his gentle tone as he tilted her chin up.

"For the love evil, Draco, don't call me that." She said, chuckling, a low quiet sound he found more appealing that the peels of silver laughter he had heard earlier. "And yes, of course, assuming you were asking."

"I was." He said, offering a hand to help her up.

"You shouldn't have." She said as she took it, "It's not proper. It's a binding contract, and the question almost negates it."

"Well, pardon me for being polite." He said as she brushed herself off.

"I wouldn't have corrected you if it had been." She informed him, smiling. "We need to go inside before we're missed." He frowned, a little confused about her intentions.

"Binding magical contract," She reminded him quietly, "So you hardly need to doubt my word." She said, "Now, if you would?" She offered her arm and he took it, escorting her indoors.

Couples danced in a slow waltz in the center of the ballroom while groups of people talking lined the edges. "Will you dance?" He asked.

"Certainly." She said, allowing him to bring her to the dance floor. "I need information if I am to rectify the mistake I have made, can you tell me?" She had asked if he could, an inquiry to his ability, not his willingness.

"I was given a mission, a choice as it were, to seduce you or kill Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore will die on his own." She said quietly as they revolved slowly.

"What?" She shook her head and he continued. "Anyway, he'll kill me if he thinks you're on to it, which obviously you are."

"Not necessarily." She said quietly, "I've been hotheaded in the past, in more ways than one. It wouldn't surprise many if I decided it didn't matter."

"You've been that stupid in the past?" He asked before he could think better of it. She chuckled.

"It's not something I'm particularly proud of." She smiled slightly, "But I'm not that girl anymore, I'm not a child now, however young I may be."

"You're young?"

"If you take the standards of my people and yours, You're closer to of age than I."

"How's that?"

"You're what, sixteen? I'm a little less than three quarters of my way to being an adult, that means I'm about fourteen by your standards." He shuddered.

"Well, maybe a little younger." She admitted.

"Not helping."

"Maturity in my people isn't based in years, it's about even with our apparent ages."

"So that makes you like seventeen?"

"There abouts." She agreed. "Of course, I've been seventeen for a while."

"May I cut in?" A smooth voice asked, Draco turned to relinquish Maeve to none other than Professor Snape.

"Good evening, Professor."

"Draco." He acknowledged, taking Maeve's hand.

"I'm surprised to see you here, Severus." Maeve said quietly, "I know you hate these events even more than I." He shrugged.

"I hadn't realized you thought it proper to interact with students in such a manner."

"It was a dance Severus." She said wearily. "Nothing more." She informed him. "And I am yet a child, for all I am older than you."

"With responsibility should come maturity."

"And wisdom, I hope." She agreed. "I am not who I was, for more reasons than one."

"I wish I believed that."

"And who is it that you worry for?"

"The boy, Draco."

"You know the boy, personally?" Severus nodded.

"His godfather."

"I'm not going to hurt your godson, Severus, not deliberately anyway. I'm not going to repeat the past, I have a long time to remember my mistakes."

"Then let us hope that you will learn from them." His voice was winter.

"So mote it be." She said quietly as she slipped from his arms and the dance floor.

Maeve reached Draco near midnight, when those of the older generation had already begun to head home and those with plans for the evening had begun to leave. She smiled at him cheerfully as she sipped from her flask.

"What's in that?" She grinned.

"I dare say you'll find out eventually." He sighed. "Shall we?" She offered her arm and he took it. There was a loud crack as she apparated.

"So that's apparating?" He was thoroughly nauseated. "I prefer brooms." She laughed.

"Doesn't everybody?" She asked. "Do you need a bucket?" He shook his head and she rolled her eyes as she helped him to sit down in a chair.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"An apartment in muggle London, I've a fair few set up to crash at, should need arise." She explained. She went to the kitchen and came back with to blue plastic glasses filled with something. "Relax, it's water." She smiled. "You're quite suspicious of me for some reason." Her grin told him that she realized he had good reason for his suspicions.

"Thank you?" She sat down across from him.

"It wasn't a complement." She informed him with mock scorn.

"It should have been, it means my judgment's still good."

"Ouch! I could cry. You'd better apologize." She said it with a straight face.

"Naturally." He said as she leaned across the table and gently touched her lips to his, then away again. "Tease." He accused.

"Naturally." She said, moving forward to sit on the table. "You're a fool, Draco." She said softly, "And so am I." This time, when her lips met his, she did not pull away.


	10. Chapter 9: Meeting Megan

Draco sat up, yawning. It took him a moment to realize that he wasn't in his bed at Hogwarts, another to remember why. He looked around the bedroom, taking the time to actually look at it. It was a simple enough room, a bed, dresser, desk, chair, and small closet. If he'd thought she lived there, he might well have gone through everything. He noticed that his clothes were cleaned, freshly folded on the chair.

Stretching, Draco climbed out of the bed and began to dress. He could hear the sizzling of bacon from the kitchen, and the quiet lull of voices as he buttoned up his shirt.

"You said you'd spend Christmas with me." The voice was slightly higher than Maeve's the accent unfamiliar to him.

"Was there anything particular you wanted to spend it doing?" Maeve asked, her voice portraying amusement. Both turned to look at him when he entered the kitchen. He looked from one to the other, Gray eyes sparkling with mischief, black hair, one free, the other tight in a single braid, a teen and a child.

"Mother?" She prompted, "Care to introduce us?" Maeve grinned at him as she transferred bacon from pan to plate and turned the stove off.

"Draco, this is my daughter Megan. Megan, this is Draco Malfoy."

"She didn't tell you anything did she?" Megan asked him. "Honesty is a virtue mother." She chided.

"Yes, but not always one of mine." Maeve admitted. "Hungry?" Draco sat down across from Megan, she looked to be about eight or nine.

"How old are you?" He asked her.

"About your age, give or take." She said, helping herself as her mother set the plate of bacon between them.

"Would you like a plate Megan?" Her mother asked, setting a glass of milk before Draco, then setting places for three at the table. She set a glass out for Megan and filled it from her flask.

"That's what you've been drinking? Blood Replenishing Potion!"

"Naturally." She said, sitting down.

"I hadn't realized you had a child."

"You were also a bit slow about my age."

"Mum," Megan said quietly, "This is...different."

"I could do worse, Megan. Besides, there are a whole host of things that would make this more awkward." Draco raised his eyebrows.

"Oh?" Her daughter asked. "He's a death eater, Mother. I can't actually see how you could have missed that one."

"I didn't." Megan opened her mouth to speak, "Yes Megan, I know I'm an idiot." She smiled slightly, "But I'm not as much of one as you think." Draco made a point of paying close attention to his food.

"Mother! I don't think you're-"

"Foolish? Headstrong? Childish?" She asked. "I am what I am, Megan, and I won't lie about it, least of all to you." She sat down at the table. "And Draco doesn't have to stay a death eater." He choked.

"What?" He asked after he had gotten his airways working again. "The tattoo on the skin is sort of permanent you know."

"Sort of." She said. "Really permanent for you, not necessarily for me."

"And the price?" Draco asked. Megan's eyes were on her mother, and Draco was not sure if she wanted her mother to lie, or to tell the truth.

"A high one. But is the price of freedom not always high?"

"She'd make you a vampire." Megan said flatly, studiously examining her nails.

"I wouldn't have to, but if I didn't, you'd probably die." She admitted.

"You'd have me give up everything?"

"If he thinks you dead, would that not be punishment enough for your family? Would they not live?" She asked quietly. "Besides, Draco, either way you're dead."

"You have a unique way of phrasing things." He observed.

"Draco, if you go to that meeting, you're dead. Horribly. Besides, making you a vampire would be a simple matter, Megan could do it."

"Mum!" She dropped her fork loudly. "I've never-!"

"And? You need to learn sometime."

"What if I screw up?"

"Then you need more practice than I thought."

"Mum, I think it would be better if you did it."

"At any rate, Draco's choice."

"Gee, thanks." Draco said dryly, and was ignored.

"Why are you willing to change him? You didn't change my father."

"With reason." Maeve said quietly. "We've discussed that before Megan. But you are right, this is different. It's more logical and less personal."

"Less dangerous?"

"I hope so." She shrugged. "Risking my own life is one thing, but I won't dice with yours, nor with Aisling's."

"Do you have a choice?"

"I enjoy the delusion." She said, suddenly grinning at her daughter. "Now, awkward small talk aside, what would you like to do today?"

"I'll just go then." Draco pushed up from his seat.

"You should stay." Megan informed him, suddenly behind him and pushing him back into his chair. Maeve raised her eyebrows as her child walked back to her seat. "I'd like to get to know who you're in a relationship with. Since you won't let me near Sanguini..."

"Actually, I won't let him near you." She ammended, "And you can go near him if you'd like to, of course, I'll have to kill him after words."

"Same thing." She muttered.

"Tell me about Sanguini." Draco prompted the child, Maeve suddenly made herself busy clearing dishes and tidying things up.

"You don't know?" She said incredulously, "Sorry, it's just one of those thing's I'm really used to hearing about."

"I'm taking a walk." Maeve said, and left.

"He was her teacher, he took advantage of her. She thought she was in love with him. She'd started school when her Mother died, and at the funeral, someone tried to shoot her older sister. With a poisoned arrow, Mum stepped in front of it and took it through her heart, she still has the scar! Anyway, she swore to find the archer and bring them to Morrigan, Morrigan was Queen since their Mum had died. Turned out that the archer was her teacher and lover, Sanguini. He tried to talk her into running a revolution and taking the crown from Morrigan, but she brought him to her sister. Morrigan had to find something to do with him, so she had him locked up. Then, because she thought Mum was an idiot, she said that she had to keep sleeping with Sanguini until she could sleep with someone and stop being emotionally attached, or until Morrigan said so. She never said so, of course, she can't now, she died only a few years later."

"Do you have a lot of problems with Revolutions?"

"It's not so much that as that Bad Queens die young. If they're bad and know it, they let their counselors run everything, and then it's okay. If they don't, they get assassinated and the next in line get's the throne."

"Okay...?"

"I'm next, followed by my aunt, Aisling." She explained. "It's totally uncool." Draco laughed.

"You'd think inheriting wouldn't be that unpleasant, but it really can be."

"How would you know?" Draco pointed to the mark on his arm.

"I didn't exactly choose this."

"Oh. That's rotten." She decided. Then, with a kids enthusiasm she asked, "So, what do you want to do today?"

"What?"

"You're spending it with Mum and I." She said.

"Do I have a choice?"

"Nope." She said as her Mom walked back in.

"Finished repeating all of the horrible mistakes of my youth?" She asked them.

"Just the one." Maeve scowled.

"So, have you made any decisions regarding the days activities?"

"Can the two of you even go out in the sunlight?"

"Obviously." Her voice was ice. "Since neither of you have any suggestions, why don't we go to the zoo?" She received two equally blank looks. "Come on, it'll be fun." She said, laughing. "Muggle clothes, Draco." She suggested. "Megan, choose something else."

"But-"

"Or I'll choose it for you."

"Fine." She glared at went into a room Draco swore hadn't been there earlier.

"I don't-" He began.

"Closet." She instructed. In jeans and a shirt, she was a far sight from either him or Megan. Megan's clothes looked like something out of the seventeen hundreds, and Draco's were formal wear from the night before.

It wasn't a large zoo, and not crowded given that it was Christmas day. Megan startled him when she began to run ahead, so much like the child she appeared to be. He looked at her mother.

"She's more mature than is usual for her age, but sometimes she does act it. I never wanted to take away her childhood, but it often seems that I have." They followed at a slightly more sedate pace.

"So, are you sure this is actually safe?"

"Relatively. Nothing here that breathes fire or spits poison, if that's what you mean." Megan turned to see that they were not joining her at break-neck speed. She stopped and sighed.

"Come on." She demanded as she stood in front of the enclosure containing camels. "Take a look at this."

"They ride those in deserts don't they?" Maeve nodded absently.

"Just read the sign." Sure enough, there was an informational section before the enclosure. Draco was reading it when a large owl swooped down and dropped a letter at Maeve's feet. She looked to see if anyone had noticed before she picked it up.

"Megan?" Though her voice was quiet, and her daughter nearly out of sight, the girl came running immediately as Maeve scanned the letter.

"Yes mother?" She hugged the girl close to her. "Mum?"

"I'm sorry." She said, stepping back and looking in her daughter's eyes. "I wanted to spend the day with you." She looked breifly at the letter in her hand and grimaced. "Unfortunately, the matter is pressing." The paper crumpled in her tight fingers.

"It's fine Mum, really. It's not a big deal." She kept her eyes to the ground, trying to hide the lie.

"It's not fine." She reached into her back pocket and handed her daughter her wallet, "I hate to leave you to babysit, but..." Megan laughed. "Anyway, Will you take care of him for me? Whatever his choice."

"Of course." She said immediately. "When will I see you?"

"Hopefully later today, maybe tomorrow." She sighed. "Draco?" He looked at her, "Don't let anything happen to my daughter." Before he could think of anything to say, she was gone. It was as if she had just faded into the air.

"How does she do that? In broad daylight!"

"I wish I knew." Megan admitted. "So, do you want to see the monkeys?"

"Sure..."

"Severus." She greeted the Order's primary spy calmly. "It best be urgent, you've interrupted my first visit with my daughter in six months."

"It's about the boy," She sighed.

"Then it is urgent, as I left my daughter with him."

"With Draco Malfoy?" She nodded. "He may well be safer with you then."

"How safe is your mind Severus?"

"Very." His voice was ice, betraying to her his offense.

"Then yes, to my knowledge he is." She looked around his home, taking in the shelves of books that lined the walls.

"What did Dumbledore want from you?" He asked as she fingered the spine of _Most Potent Potions_.

"Immortality." She said quietly. "He's dying."

"I know." Severus said quietly and gestured for her to sit. "The old man will not appreciate your interference with Draco."

"I know. Neither will the ministry. I expect they will use it as an excuse to break the treaty, just as Dumbledore will fire me over it."

"What are your intentions?"

"I gave him a choice." She shrugged. "But either way, I don't intend to let him be killed."

"He may be more difficult to hold than you expect."

"How much trouble could one human child actually be?" She asked, "Anyway, I'm counting on Dumbledore misinterpreting things, he doesn't really need me to teach anyway."

"The Order is having a meeting, Dumbledore wishes you to attend. Naturally, it starts in five minutes."

"And he told you about five ago, right?" She sighed, "Typical Dumbledore."

"Shall we?" He offered his arm to her. She took it and he apparated.

Most of the Order of the Phoenix disliked Severus Snape, Maeve Solis was only slightly more welcome. They were greeted by a curt nod. Across the room, Remus Lupin started when he saw her. Maeve took a seat beside a girl with extremely pink hair.

"Maeve," She looked to Mad-Eye-Moody. "You will support us in this war, then?"

"Of course." She said simply, the room falling silent as she spoke. "But my people do not fight wars in the way yours do, so I do not know how much help we may be."

"Oh, we'll find a way to use you. At the very least, that nifty transportation you do could be very helpful if they can't detect it."

"He thinks he can get me to work with him, or at the very least neutralize me. The longer he thinks that, the less time he has to take precautions against my people."

"You're certain he thinks that."

"He wants her distracted." Severus informed them. "Obviously he'd like it if she worked with him, but he'll settle for keeping her from interfering."

"I see." He muttered. The meeting lasted for hours, there was a brief break at about noon and Molly Weasley opened doors and found food for everyone.

"Professor?" Hermione Granger, startled.

"Hello." She said, greeting Harry, Ron and Hermione. "I trust you are all enjoying your vacation." They nodded.

"I didn't know you were part of the order."

"I'm not sure if I officially am anymore." She shrugged. "My mother sent me to Hogwarts during the last war, and though my people didn't officially take part in that war, I joined the order."

"You could go against your mother?" Hermione, who had been reading up on the Kingdom of Night, asked.

"Officially, no. She told me that what I did in my spare time was nobody's business, but whatever I did had best not get her involved in it. That was fine, because there were very few people who knew what I was."

"Professor?" Harry asked, confused.

"Professor Solis is a vampire Harry." Lupin told him. "It would be best if you didn't mention it to anyone."

"You don't look anything like Sanguini did." Harry remarked.

"I should hope not." Her lips pursed. "He wasn't always like that, but annoying my sister tended to be detremental to ones health."

"I don't understand."

"While I am not human, have never been human, I went to Hogwarts. I learned to be human, or as close as one such as I can come to it. My sister was cruel, even by our standards."

"Her mother was Queen of the Kingdom of Night." Hermione attempted to explain the nuances to her male companions.

"The what?" Ron asked.

"The Kingdom of Night includes those on the edges of civilization. It's a refuge for those who can find a place nowhere else."

"It's always been a monarchy, ruled by a vampire queen of the same bloodline for generations. Remus' description is fairly accurate, we've vampires, werewolves, elves, goblins, dwarves, one dragon..." She shrugged. "Humans too."

"What sort of human would want to live there?" Ron said. Hermione kicked him.

"Someone with an incredible lack of prejudice." Was Maeve's answer.

"You shouldn't judge what you haven't seen, Ron. Maeve's people are some of our greatest allies. The Kingdom of Night is one of the only alternatives to Fenrir Greybacks plan for werewolves."

"We're starting again." Someone said, nodding to the kids, Maeve stepped back into the meeting room.

It was late evening when the meeting was finally over. "Maeve?" Remus asked quietly.

"Would you like to get coffee?"

"I sorry Remus." She placed her hand on his arm. "I don't know where my daughter is." Their eyes locked. "I think she's okay, but I have to find her." Shock clearly written across his face. "She had an aptitude for trouble.

"Do you want help?" She shook her head.

"I shouldn't need it, but thank you." He nodded, tried to seem casual.

"I didn't hear about you having a kid." He remarked as they made their way out of the room, she shrugged.

"I've been out of touch with the wizarding world for the past decade. Thing's have been... complicated." He nodded, pretending that he understood.

"Take care." He said quietly.

"You too." She said, her words a calm formality between acquaintances.


	11. Chapter 10: Challenge to Choice

"Megan?" She asked, "What exactly-"

"Um..."

"A choice Megan, you were supposed to give him one."

"Um..."

"I'm disappointed." She said, her cold statement cutting the girl deeper than any scolding could have. "Please leave us." The girl looked to her feet.

"Yes mother." She hurtled from the room. Maeve sighed as she untied Draco.

"If the Order of the Phoenix didn't give me a headache, this mess has certainly done it." She muttered as she supported the semi-conscious teen in her arms.

As Maeve turned to the door, she found it's frame already occupied. "My Lady, Queen and Sister," He said, bowing to her.

"Please get up Jareth, I'm in no fit mood to deal with that right now." He rose swiftly and held out his arms for Draco.

"I'll carry him." She passed him over, "Megan's becoming a menace." Jareth had never been one to soften his words, even to those he cared for most.

"Yes. She is." Maeve agreed. "Ideas?" There was ice in her eyes, of the type he knew only too well. Somewhere between fury and sorrow and perfectly willing to do something stupid, it worried him.

"Spend more time with her. You've barely seen her in six months. It's no wonder she's behaved badly after you left her today."

"And however pressing duty may be, it offers no excuse to a child." She sighed. "The Ministry of Magic will break the treaty over the boy. Dumbledore will be less than pleased as well."

"Where do you want to place him?" He asked as they stood together in the doorway. "One of the guest rooms." She nodded as they parted ways.

The world did a painful three sixty around him as Draco sat up. "You should rest." A cool voice advised. A glass was pushed into his hands, it weighed a ton in his shaking fingers. Draco sipped it warily, bittersweet and warm, he didn't look at it's contents. He knew all too well what the glass contained and what it's meaning was.

"Who are you?" He asked, the first of a thousand questions.

"Jareth." The voice answered, and Draco looked at the man who sat by his bed. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, he had brown hair that was tied back in a braid and familiar gray eyes. "I'm Maeve's older brother."

"Where is she?"

"Given her mood, it's better not to know." He said quietly. "Anyway, you're not in fit condition to be going anywhere." The man stood, and Draco's head spun as he tried to look up at him. "I'll check on you every now and again." When Maeve's brother left the room, Draco let his head fall to his pillow again, sinking quickly into a delirious half-sleep.

"Mum?" The child asked. "I don't understand, why are you so upset?"

"Because you took someone's life and you turned it around, flipped it inside out and spat on it for good measure, and you did it against his will. You showed an utter disrespect for life in general. The world is not ours to shape."

"Isn't it?"

"No Megan. And I suggest you find religion, soon."

"I don't understand."

"You're showing an alarming resemblance to my sister."

"Aisling-"

"My other sister." Ice cold fury. The girl swore the temperature in the room plummeted, a theory confirmed by the fog of her breath.

She didn't know what to do, what say. She couldn't say she was sorry, her mother would tell her it meant nothing, would be even more angry.

He thought he heard voices, and sat up. The world stayed put. Draco looked around and was startled by the familiarity of the scene before him. She knelt at his bed side, her back straight, her eyes to the cobbled floor. Her dark braid swung comically behind her.

"I screwed up." She said quietly. Draco sighed.

"Get up." He ordered, more tired than annoyed.

She glared at him. "Do you have any idea how offensive that is?" Draco closed his eyes and tried to ignore the pain building behind his forehead.

"Megan, it was misunderstanding. It's not a problem." He forced his voice calm, reasonable.

"Then why is my mother so upset? So angry?" Her eyes were to wide when she looked up at him and he realized she near tears.

"I don't know." He admitted. "Look, it could have been a lot worse, your mother will calm down eventually."

"I've never seen her this angry. She said I reminded her of Morrigan!" She was crying now, she looked human.

"If you don't want to be like that, you should constantly work to avoid it. You'll make mistakes, everyone does, the trick is not dying from them."

Pain, his ribs, it took him a moment to realize that it was Megan, another to realize she wasn't trying to kill him, a third that he didn't need oxygen badly. "Megan, that hurts." He told her.

"Oh!" She let go immediately.

"So, Megan, do you mind telling me where we are?"

"The City beneath the Soil." She said, surprised. "When you're feeling up to it, I'll show you around. That is, if you'd like me to."

"I'd like that." He smiled at her. "Since I'm not, will you tell me about your family? Someone named Jareth was here for a while..." He prompted her.

"Jareth's my uncle." she told him, "Mum's Mother was Imogen. She had three kids by her first husband, Alberik, Gethin Morrigan and Jareth. One by her second, and that was a _really _short marriage, that was to Mum's father. Then, her third marriage was to Aberforth, she had two kids with him, William and Aisling."

"Okay."

"This was over a few thousand years." She reminded him. "Except for Mum, William and Aisling, they were all born within the past sixty years."

"That's not common?" He guessed.

"Nope. Definitely not." She told him. "Most vampires have very few kids. Legend says that our better queens have more kids, and younger, but that's heresay."

"You believe it." He observed.

"There isn't any record of a vampire having kids as young as Mum, an-"

"Megan," The man from before. "Are you going to annoy your mother further by missing the meeting she specifically told us all to attend?"

"I have to go. Please forgive the suddenness. Thank you uncle." The girl rushed from the room.

"You are well?" Jareth asked.

"Well enough." Draco answered.

"Would you like to come to our meeting then?"

"Sure."

"I'll help you." Draco stood slowly, leaning on the bed for a moment until his head cleared. He walked to the door slowly, ghosting his fingers along the wall. "It won't matter if we're late. It might be better, actually." He chuckled, but didn't explain.

"Now that we are assembled," Maeve began, then halted as the small woman who had stood behind her on her right put a hand on her shoulder. "What is it you would like to address, Nyline?"

"Duty, Lady Maeve."

"I see." Megan stared in shock. "Then so be it. I know our laws, judge me as you may."

"No!" She shouted in horror. A gentle hand beside her held her back, Her eldest uncle. "Get off of me." She said angrily. He only shook his head.

"Megan, shut up. It is not your place to interfere, no more than it is mine." Her voice was frozen ice, but not the cold fury that had held her before.

"You neglect your daughter, Lady Maeve." Maeve stood, turning to face Nyline and the man who had stood on her left.

"A child needs a father." The man said.

"And what would you suggest, Finnian?" She prompted. "You knew that wasn't an option, I recall discussing it."

"She still needs one, Lady." The man said.

"So you would take away her mother as well?" Maeve asked. "Whatever issues you have with me, we will deal with them now, it is as good a time as ever there shall be."

"The short of it is, get married, and quit leaving." Maeve laughed, almost hysterical.

"At least one of those would have been addressed if you'd waited for the meeting to actually take place."

"Both of them actually." Jareth said.

"I was wondering what you were getting up to." Maeve remarked. "Please do explain." Jareth helped Draco into the room.

"Nyline, Finian, Most esteemed relatives, this is-"

"Get him a chair before he falls over." Maeve ordered, sounding more than a little irritable. "His name's Draco Malfoy." She informed them.

"Was there anything else you wanted to tell us?" Nyline asked, "Since you seem to be in the mood for big announcements." Jareth helped Draco into a chair and sat down next to him.

"Nyline, I am not in a good mood, please leave the teasing for another time and in future think before you speak." She was angry and it was obvious to everyone. "And no, not that I am aware of, though I believe Jareth has one."

"You remember that theory we were playing with a while ago?" The room fell silent though the tension was tangable. "The one about humans? We brought it up again about sixteen years ago, give or take?"

"What has that got to do with anything?"

"Well..." Jareth said smuggly.

"Megan?"

"Yes Mum?"

"Do me a favor," She said, "Find somewhere else to be, and take Draco with you."

"But-"

"I'll summarize this fiasco for you later."

"Yes Mum."

"Don't I get a choice?"

"Draco, you can barely walk," She explained slowly, "and while I am sure you have many questions, now is neither the time nor the place for explanations." Draco didn't argue, it wasn't the time or place for that either.

"She's stretched thin." He told Megan once they were out of ear shot. "She's so close to snapping you can almost feel it and she doesn't want us there when she does."

"Maybe." Megan shrugged.

"What was going on in there, anyway? The people Maeve was angry with?" Megan sighed and looked at her feet.

"They're her guards. They're supposed to keep her safe from foreign assassinations. When someone wants to run a rebellion, they ask the Queen's Guard for help and if she's bad, they kill her and everything transitions smoothly."

"Were they going to?"

"They were making a fuss about nothing. They always get fussy when she's gone for a long while, she's mostly mad because they brought me into it, they made up shit about me needing a father." They had come to a balcony and Draco leaned on the rail and got his first real look at the Kingdom of Night.

The horizon was painted by spots of light throughout an enormous sprawling city. "They're not totally wrong." He admitted, watching distant people move through the streets. "It's good to have two parents, but it's not necessary. The hero of the wizarding world was brought up by his aunt and uncle and he turned out...well, okay." She raised her eyebrows. "He's not my favorite person." Draco admitted.

"It's scary. She could have died there, they could have killed her and she wouldn't have raised a hand to defend herself."

"You don't think so?" Draco asked, surprised. "You don't think your mother would do everything she could to stay alive and keep you safe?"

"I don't want to find out." Draco nodded in agreement.

"Do you know what theory they were talking about?" She shrugged.

"The only one I can think of is really silly." Draco raised an eyebrow. "They had something about a greater likelihood of having kids with humans, it was really strange." Draco had a sick feeling in his stomach that had nothing to do with nausea.

"Your father was human, wasn't he?" Draco asked.

"Yeah, so was my aunt and uncle's. They're really close in age." She shrugged. "Of course, just by age, Mum and I could be siblings."

Draco stared over the expanse of the underground city and thought. He looked down at his arm and found no trace of the tattoo that had marked it for so long. That was one plus. He looked at the girl balanced on the railing, braid swinging precariously and threatening to overbalance her.

"You mind getting down, you're making me nervous." She rolled her eyes and climbed down.

"Jeesh, you act my my Mum."

"She is right occasionally." He reminded her. She stuck out her tongue. He stuck out his and she laughed.

"You can't do that." She told him. "You're an adult." He stuck out his tongue. "You can't do that." She insisted.

"Obviously I can."

"But you can't!"

"Can to."

"Can not."

"Can to."

"Not."

"To."

"Not"

"To."

"NotNotNotNotNotNotNot!" He laughed.

"What was that, I don't think I quite heard you?"

" !"

"What?" He cupped his hand to his ear.

" !"

"Well, if you say so." He said calmly. "I don't suppose you know where I could get a bite to eat around here?" He thought about it for a moment, "Er, on second thought..."

"Don't worry, it's human, they don't feel a thing when we-" She burst out laughing. "Kidding!" She said as he glared at her. "Magic remember."

"You are a dreadful little heathen." She laughed, and bowed.

"I'll fetch you something, you're looking a bit pale." She left, laughing even louder.

"My brother bought her Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Christmas last year." Maeve said, emerging from shadows behind him. "He forgot that they'll believe anything at that age. She was insufferable for weeks."

"Are you sure he forgot?" She laughed.

"I swear, you're getting more skeptical by the hour."

"A sign of mental health I'm sure." She sighed and leaned against the rail.

"I've a fifteen minute break from those...Well, I mustn't speak ill of my family." The corners of her mouth twitched upward slightly. "I've been resisting the impulse to smash my head against a wall all evening."

"What's going on?"

"Politics." She filled the word with venom. "You'd think that in war at least they would put for some effort to present a united front. The guard's fussing about me getting married, which they shouldn't be doing since I have an heir."

"They're worried about Megan."

"So am I, but she's my daughter and they have no business screwing with her like they did today. They can threaten my life if they wish, but I don't want them doing it in front of her. She's just a child." She sighed, "I shouldn't burden you with my problems. How are you feeling?"

"I'm not bad." She laughed. "Seriously." She didn't stop. "I've been worse." She grimaced.

"I know."

"Anyway, If you have the time, I'd like a crash course in being a vampire."

"Sunlight won't kill you, but it will make you very sleepy, and weaker." She said, "You can eat normal food but you'll need blood or a blood replenishing potion. Replenishing potion can only do so much though and you're going to need actual blood often for the first few years. Human blood is best, but animal will work as well, better if it's fresh."

"I don't want to...kill anything."

"You won't have to." She told him, "I won't let you." She placed her hand on his arm. "Control is, a challenge, but like anything, it gets easier."

"What am I going to do?" He asked, eyes drifting across the lighted city and to the black starless sky.

"What do you want to?" She countered.

"I don't know. I never really thought about what I'd do when I got older, never really expected to get older."

"You won't." A bell tolled the hour in the distance, Draco counted three chimes and wondered if it was morning or night. When he looked up, she was gone.


	12. Chapter 11: Mask of Humanity

"What do you mean you haven't seen him?" Narcissa Malfoy asked sharply. "I specifically told you to inform me the instant he arrived."

"He has not arrived, Mistress." The house elf told her.

"Well then where is he?"

"Millie does not know, Mistress." Narcissa sat down heavily in her chair to await her husbands return and the bad news he was sure to bear.

* * *

"Miss Solis,"

"Yes Professor Dumbledore?"

"I have heard some disturbing rumors regarding your behavior."

"I doubt that they are rumors, Professor."

"What?"

"Well, it depends on what you heard, but generally, it's probably true."

"Miss Solis, you understand that I cannot continue to have you work here if that is the case."

"I'll have my things moved before morning." She said, turning to leave.

"Miss Solis?"

"Yes?" She said, halting in the doorway to look at him.

"What possibly possessed you to change sides like this?"

"What? Change sides? I'm hardly working with Death Eaters, so if that's what you heard..." She stepped down the stairs and out of his office.

"Miss Solis?" He asked the empty air, confusion shimmering softly in his blue eyes.

* * *

"So, tell me again why I'm doing this?" Draco asked.

"Because I'm wonderful."

"Better try another reason." He suggested.

"Because you're wonderful?"

"Better." He admitted. "What is it, anyway?"

"I told you, it's a pygmie puff."

"Yes, but you didn't tell me what a pygmie puff is."

"How can you not know?" He sighed, the girl did have a unique capacity for mayhem.

"Don't you have magic or something?" She shook her head.

"Not for that, that's wizard magic." Draco drew his wand and cast the summoning spell. He dodged the flying ball of pink that hurtled towards him at break neck speed, improved reflexes did have their uses.

"This?" There was a outburst of pink fur through the room followed by tears from Megan. It took him a moment to realize what had happened; She had taken it from his fingers and hugged it and it had burst.

Draco was at a loss for what to say. 'Next time be careful' didn't seem to cover it, neither did 'oops' or 'All's well that ends well'. Shrugging to himself, he walked away.

* * *

"Now that we are all present," Megan raised her hand. "You have something to discuss, Megan?"

"My pygmie puff died."

"Megan, I advise you learn to take better care of your pets." Megan started crying.

"I hate you!" She rushed from the room.

"Now that that is settled, Have we anything to discuss?" Maeve said calmly.

"Maeve?" He said quietly. "We need to talk."

"Of course." She said, standing up slowly. For a moment he could see the weariness that rested in every bone, the exhaustion she strove to hide.

"Sit down." He suggested. "You look exhausted." She sighed.

"You shouldn't be able to see it." He smiled slightly as she sat.

"I know the feeling." He sat down beside her. "I can't just sit around idling my thumbs waiting for this war to be over." He told her.

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't know." He said, frustrated.

"War isn't action, mostly, it's long stretches of bordem broken up by brief periods of intense panic."

"Well said, Sister."

"Gethin, A pleasure as always. Please sit."

"What can you tell me about them?" Gethin asked Draco.

"Who?"

"The death eaters, The more information I possess, the better my strategies become."

"We don't fight the way wizards do, not generally." Maeve clarified. "We fought in the first war against Tom, but that is the only time we have fought a war against wizards."

"I don't know what you can do against magic when you can't use spells." Draco said doubtfully.

"Teach him?" She asked her brother.

"Of course." Gethin smiled. "Not everything is magic boy, let me show you." He looked years younger as laughter formed on his lips, "Come." Maeve nodded to them as Gethin led him out. He stopped when they reached a field with targets set up at varying distances.

"Watch." He said, motioning for Draco to stand a little behind him and off to the side. It a rapid motion he drew a silver piece of oddly shaped metal. There was a loud noise and Draco saw a hole tear through the nearest target. Another noise, another hole through the center. Again. "Understand?"

"Wow." Draco understood. He spent the afternoon learning to use what Gethin called 'firearms'. They were rather limited, he reflected, but they put Muggles, or Vampires on more equal ground with wizards.

"If there was someone who could do magic, it wouldn't be to hard to have them apparate a group near to death eaters, take a few shots under shield charm and then apparate away again, would it?"

"Not half bad." Gethin said and Draco looked at him, surprised. "The idea, not your aim. That still needs much practice." Draco sighed. "Give it a few centuries, you'll get it down."

Draco tried not to look too dismayed, but a century still seemed like a very long time to him. He supposed that was what came from being human.

He spent a week practicing before he snapped. "I can't do this." He told Maeve. "I can't take it." He turned around and began to walk from the room. "Goodbye."

"Draco," Her voice was so quiet that he turned back to look at her. "Please." He couldn't leave, not after that. He walked back to her and took her hand.

"What do you want from me?" He asked her.

"Stay with me."

"Why do you want me to?" She smiled.

"Guess." Her eyes danced with amusement, but she seemed to sense that he needed something else. She didn't wait for an answer. "I suppose it's because I'm in love with you."

"How can you know that? Do you even know me? I'm not sure I do anymore."

"It may have taken me half a century, but I do know my own heart." She said softly. "If I've learned anything, it's not to give up on the people you love."

"There's a phrase, 'If you love something, set it free."

"If it returns it's yours, if it doesn't it never was." She finished.

"Would you stop me leaving?"

"I'd worry." She admitted. "And I've far to many of those already, my hair will go gray." The laughter was back in her eyes again, but fainter than it usually was.

"You sure you're not human?"

"No." She said. "I'm not." She smiled wryly. "If you wear a mask long enough, you become it. My people are in many ways, very human." She closed her eyes slightly.

"Of course," She continued. "If I try, I can remember a time before the clever little monkeys came down from the trees and learned to fight back, before we learned to change are shape to trick them. We were different then, we have worn the mask of humanity too long and have long ago lost the ability to take it off."

"You're waxing philisophical again." He remarked.

"It's been known to happen." She considered adding more, but decided against it. She felt no need to prolong the conversation, if he chose to leave then she would let him, much as it pained her to do so.

"I can't stay." He said gently. "I'm sorry." She wanted to tell him that he wasn't, but bit her tongue instead. She nodded, expecting him to relinquish her hand, he didn't.

Instead he kissed her, with the slow thoroughness of someone who has discovered a decreased need for oxygen. "Goodbye." He said after he had finally pulled away for air. With a loud crack, he was gone.

"Well, I'll give him points for dramatic exit." She said dryly. She stood and stalked over to a balcony, staring out over her city.

"Love of one's country is a terrible thing, It banishes fear with the speed of a flame and makes us a part of the" Her brother sang from behind her in his rich country voice.

"Patriot Game." She finished the verse with the name of the song, not looking at him as he came to stand beside her. He put his hand on her shoulder.

"How's my favorite sister?" He asked, a teasing tone in his voice. She glanced at him. "Maeve, you're crying."

"Am I?" She asked, startled.

"I suppose 'Who should I kill?' Is the wrong question." She nodded, but smiled slightly nonetheless.

"It is."

"Pity. I prefer that one. Less trouble all round really." She laughed, a hollow echoing sound. Jareth pulled his sister into a bear hug.

"You've been drinking again." She observed, the smell of alcohol filling her nostrals, she had expected it after he came in singing, but even so, it stung her senses.

"You haven't. You probably should be."

"It wouldn't help. Drinking away one's sorrows isn't something I can afford." She told him. "I'm for bed, so I'll see you later Jareth."

"Alone?"

"YES." He laughed. "Not funny, Jareth." She informed him, lips pursed. "Really not funny." She walked away from the balcony.

Jareth decided, as he watched his favorite sister walk away, to buy her some chocolate. He wasn't very good at comforting people, and it was all he knew to do. No one was supposed to make his sister cry.


	13. Chapter 12: Blood Magic

It had been a beautiful jinx, at least in Draco's opinion. He didn't have anyone else to ask. He'd been traveling a lot, attacking Death eaters as much as he could. Shrugging to himself, he apparated. It wouldn't do to be there when the man's companions found him in that condition. That had been the pattern of Draco's life for a while, he wasn't sure how long, time didn't seem to pass the same way for him anymore.

It was an odd coincidence when he found Hermione, a discovery aided by an improved sense of smell.

"Draco, you're looking...pale." Hermione said.

"That is a common side effect."

"Oh my-" She got it immediately.

"Hermione, who's out there?" Draco and Hermione exchanged looks.

"A friend if you want one." Draco called to the tent.

"Malfoy!" They exchanged another look.

"By the way, Granger, you might want to stop wearing perfume, it makes you really obvious, even with all those shield charms."

"That's how you found us!"

"The charmed image and the scent didn't add up, so I decided to investigate." He explained.

"Malfoy! You're supposed to be dead, or missing, or something."

"I suppose that depends on you're definition. Am I technically dead, Hermione?"

"Well, if you aren't now, you were at one point."

"What-!" Potter asked.

"She made him a vampire." Draco pulled up his sleeve, revealing plain skin. "Oh my God!" She hugged him, which left Draco looking awkwardly at Potter.

"So you weren't a death eater."

"I was." That surprised him.

"I didn't think it was possible to get rid of that."

"I had help." He admitted.

"Of course!" Hermione had the look he had come to associate with brilliant deduction. "Where is she?"

"Who?" Potter asked, for Draco at least, there was only one 'she' Hermione could possibly be asking him about.

"Maeve Solis! You remember, psychotic PE teacher? Vampire?" Hermione prompted the-boy-who-failed-to-die.

"Yes, but..." He shook his head, "Never mind that, what are you doing here?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "I couldn't go back to Hogwarts, so I've been traveling, causing trouble for Death-Eaters whenever I can."

"That's got to be risky, your family-"

"Thinks I'm dead, just like everyone else, Hermione." He said wearily. "You lot need a hand?" He asked hesitantly, "Assuming you're comfortable having a vampire around, of course."

That was what decided Harry, he knew that Malfoy lost any chance of a normal life to get rid of the dark mark. He was glad the boy had gotten out of it alive. "Assuming you're okay staying with," He mimed quotations, "Undesirable number one."

"Savior of the Wizarding World wasn't working out for you?" Harry laughed.

"You could say that." He said, "Come on," He showed Draco the tent.

"Draco?" Hermione asked, rather hesitantly. "How out of touch have you been?"

"Very." He admitted. "I haven't actually spoken with anyone in...ages really." He shrugged.

"Draco, Dumbledore's dead." Draco sat down, hard.

"I'd heard...Well, Maeve said he was dying but..."

"Snape killed him." Harry said angrily. "He was working for him the whole time."

"If Dumbledore was dying...Snape would have known." Hermione said, trying to placate Harry. "She would have told him, wouldn't she?"

"I don't know." Draco admitted. "I think so, certainly he knew more about her than most." He said, "Every time I think I know her, she does something and I realize I barely know her at all."

"I know the feeling." Harry remarked, "But if you feel that way, why aren't you busy trying to get to know her better?"

"What?"

"That's what I wish I would've done, with Dumbledore."

"Trust me, it's not the same...er, unless..." Harry looked totally confused and Hermione started laughing.

"It's not Draco." She assured him. Harry gave her a look that said 'explain'. "Draco's been..." She grinned mischievously. "Well, let me put it this way, she must like him a lot since she's willing to keep him around forever."

"She didn't do that for Megan's father."

"Huh?"

"Her daughter."

"She has a kid!"

"Yes, she's a little different, but she's a sweet kid once you get to know her." He shrugged. "I don't know who her father is."

"By the old ways, she should have married him."

"She didn't. Jareth tells me that it was the fanciest piece of, er, junk, he's ever seen." Draco had to hastily amend the quote, most of Jareth's quotes needed language editing actually. "Anyway, I've been out of touch since Christmas, so..."

"Which one?"

"There was more than one?" He asked surprised, "The one when I left, I guess." Harry and Hermione exchanged a look.

"Draco," She said softly, "It's been over a year."

"The ministry fell ages ago." Harry told him. Harry was about to say more when Draco held up a hand for silence, motioning for them to listen. "Draco, I don't hear anything." Hermione kicked him lightly.

"Vampire!" She whispered. Draco closed his eyes, he could hear the breathing of his companions, their heartbeats loud and close. He ignored it, listing deeper, what he heard was loud, close enough that the others could hear it as well.

"You lot! This way! Somebody's here." They peaked out of the tent, and Draco knew immediately that they could indeed be seen. In a quick wand motion, Hermione had placed everything into an impossibly small handbag.

"Draco, give me your arm!" She said as they approached.

"It's him! It's Potter!"

"What?" She grabbed his arm and drew a line across it with her wand, blood poured out. She muttered words in a language he did not know and a glowing circle appeared on the ground where his blood had begun to pool.

"Come on!" She grabbed Harry in one arm and Draco in the other and dragged them into the portal. It was worse then apparating, Draco felt sure that when they got where they were going, he was going to find that his insides were on his outside.

They weren't, fortunately. The three of them crashed onto the floor directly in front of Maeve Solis. She looked more amused than anything. "Apparently you've learned dramatic entrance while you were away." She said calmly.

"Professor-"

"I'm not your teacher anymore, Hermione. So feel free to use my name, or my title, whichever you prefer."

"Yes, well, Sorry about that, we were sort of about to get captured so..."

"What on Earth did you do?" Draco asked her, noticing that his cut was already healing. Maeve looked to the portal, and Draco followed her gaze. The men, snatchers, were looking through it, confused.

"Seal." She commanded it, waving her hand and dispersing the image. "You were lucky, Fenrir Greyback is certainly not known for kindness." Hermione shivered. "He will of course tell his master of this and that is going to be...problematic." Draco noticed that the room was quickly filling as people came to investigate.

"Mum!"

"Megan, please find these three accommodation." She instructed her daughter in a business-like tone as the girl halted at the door. "Gethin, I want the gates sealed within the hour, get as many of our people in before than as you can. William?" She looked around and didn't find him, "Someone find that brother of mine." She said distractedly.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Draco asked as Megan tugged on his arm, trying to get the three unexpected visitors out of the way.

"Yes, it is rather our fault."

"It would have happened anyway, this way at least, we'll know of the attack before he does." Her lips curved upwards slightly. "Stay if you wish, you may be able to help." She looked around the room. "Megan, get the council of mages in here, then I want you to stay with Hermione. Everyone who isn't useful, GET OUT!" There was a large amount of grumbling as people began to file out of the room.

"What's going on?"

"Hermione, I'm going to ask you to protect my daughter, should anything go wrong, get her and Mr. Potter out of here. The rest of us are expendable."

"But!" The-boy-who-failed-to-die objected and was ignored.

"Maeve, you can't be serious!" Everyone flinched as William stormed in. "This is absolutely insane! You can't possibly-" He noticed Draco, "About Damn time you came back, considering-"

"Shut up. It's necessary and to hell with everything else. Have you made the preparations?"

"Of course." He snapped, offended.

"Then let us discuss everything else at another time, I want it ready on the hour."

"Er, what exactly-"

"She wants to move the whole damned Kingdom!" William exploded in answer to Hermione's question. "And she'll use her own Damn magic to do it, she won't be able to use any for months afterwords, she'll be totally helpless."

"Not necess-"

"Fetch my supplies!" He snapped at the girl who had followed him in and dared to speak.

"You really shouldn't be sending her about in that condition, William."

"You're one to talk." He muttered as he started to sketch in chalk along the floor.

"I don't suppose anyone wants to explain how this works?"

"She stays in this circle-" He gestured to the small circle he had just completed, "Mages surround the larger one around it, their job is to catch the aftershocks if anything happens to her." He drew the larger circle, then a line stemming from the center circle out. "I draw another circle here, I'll be in this one, surrounded by my own circle, our job is to catch the shocks if they fail."

"That's a lot of backup plans." Hermione observed.

"What's the success rate?" Draco asked, catching the probable reason for all of the extra people.

"No idea." Maeve admitted as people started to enter the room, each drawing a symbol on one of the large circles and taking a place on it. They talked excitedly in murmurs as they did so. "We've never done this before."

"Not great," William informed him, "Since she insists on doing it alone." He grimaced, "She could allow someone in the circle with her, it would increase her chances of survival considerably." He was face to face with his sister then and looked very angry.

"Why won't you?" Draco wanted to know, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Megan had managed to distract Hermione and The-Boy-Who-Failed-To-Die. "Well?" He asked when she didn't answer.

"It wouldn't require any magic, but it would be painful."

"I'll do it." He remarked casually. She opened her mouth to tell him no and was interrupted.

"We're very grateful." It was one of the guards he had seen earlier.

"As you would." Maeve said grimly. "You've a right to." She sighed.

"You know how we feel about this plan." The other guard reminded her.

"The risk is worth it." She said without looking at the girl. "You don't have to like it, you've done the same math I have and come to the same conclusions. Trust me, I'd be delighted if you had something better."

"Don't do it, just keep the seals."

"So I could test my magic against his? If I did that, there wouldn't be any escape routes, no fail-safes, Even if I die, this will work, my people will be safe."

"It's time, the gates are sealed." Draco noticed that all of Maeve's family was there. She took his hand and the walked to her circle.

"I've got the simple part actually, William will do the spell and direct it, all I do is provide the power." She told him quietly as people moved into position around them. "The pain is something that accompanies the use of any large amount of power, it's why we seldom use magic."

"You use a wand just fine."

"Not the same type of magic at all." She informed him, "Now hush, for we must begin." She drew a small blade across her wrist drawing a shallow cut and letting the blood fall onto the chalked circle.

As he watched the chalk slowly turned red, growing outward from where the drops fell, then as the chalk filled in red, crimson walls of power were thrown up above the chalked lines.

He could see William in his circle, chanting something that he couldn't hear as the room filled with swirling wind. Maeve continued to bleed.

He looked into her eyes and saw that within the gray, red clouds swirled. She started to fall and he grabbed onto her, holding her upright within the circle. He could feel her heartbeat grow fainter as she leaned against him.

Pain, throbbing to a failing heartbeat, wracked through him. She smiled up at him, eyes nearly completely crimson, she pulled his head down so that she could press her lips against his. It was an intoxicating mix of pain and pleasure, and for a moment it seemed as if she was the only real thing in the world.

When they parted for air she leaned heavily against him. "It is done." She said softly and passed out. He held her as the swirling wind slowed as people around him started shouting. He held her as they rushed forward. It was all he could do to stay standing.

"It's alright." A voice promised, "You can let go." With some hesitation, he let her older brother take her. He battled gravity and felt the world go black as gravity won.


	14. Chapter 13: Mortality

Draco sat at the bar, absently stirring his drink. "What's the latest scandal?" He heard someone ask the barkeep.

"Lady Maeve, of course." The man said, chuckling. "Pregnant, or so they're saying. Hid it for over a year, slowed down her body, see." He had the air of someone with the newest gossip.

"It's not natural." Someone remarked.

"Well that's Vampires for you, isn't it? They're not like us."

"Why do we let them rule then? They've no sense of what's normal."

"You haven't heard the rest of it boy, so hush and let him tell it." Another man said.

"Right, She moved the whole dang Kingdom! She knew He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was coming to attack, see, so she closed the entrances and moved it! Still hasn't woke up, they're saying."

"That's why, boy." Said the man who interrupted. "Every now and again, they pull something like that, save all of us. Lady Maeve's more into that then most, so if she wants to make a scandal, I don't reckon any of us have a right to complain."

"They're not human!"

"Neither are half the people in this bar, son." The barkeep said, laughing. "What's your business here stirring trouble?"

For what wasn't the first time, Draco thanked his improved reflexes as Megan came plowing through the door and straight at him. She hugged him tight enough to break a human's ribs. "What is it?"

"You have to come! You have to! She's asking for you!"

"She's awake?"

"Come on!" Draco barely had time to leave money on the counter before the girl dragged him from the building.

"I leave you once and that's when you decide to wake up?" He asked softly.

"Naturally." She managed a slight smile. "Getting into trouble?"

"He was in a bar." Said Megan with all the self-righteousness of a small child. "Drinking." She informed her mother.

"How'd that go?"

"I had no idea how difficult it was going to be to get intoxicated."

"Jareth makes it look easy."

"How's he do it?"

"I have a theory in which he uses magic to put it directly into his veins, but he won't tell me if I'm right."

"Mum!" Megan said, irritated. "Tell him."

"He already knows Megan," She told her daughter quietly and the girl went sulking from the room.

"How are you?" Draco asked her, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Better." She told him. "Better for your company."

"Would you have told me?" He asked, tracing light circles on her stomach.

"Not much of a choice really."

"I never had a chance to ask you, but where exactly did you move the Kingdom of Night to?" He inquired, she laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

"Underneath Malfoy Manor." She said between hysterical giggles. He shook his head, who else would hide from the Dark Lord underneath a house that he was known to occasionally use as headquarters?

"I hope you were careful about placing entrances." He said finally.

"We didn't." She said when she had stopped giggling.

"Air supply?"

"Magic." She said simply.

"I suppose I'll have to marry you." He remarked, thoughtfully. The look she gave him held pure fury. "What?"

"There are several things I would like to say to that, none of which I can." She grimaced, "I can, however, tell you to leave me the hell alone."

"Not likely." He said flatly, she glared. "You can glare at me all you like, I'm not going anywhere." She continued to glare. "And it's not like you can do anything to get rid of me either."

"Draco," There was a threat in her tone, which he proceeded to ignore.

"You can't just get rid of me." He told her flatly, and she sighed.

"Yeah, I thought that was going to be the case." She said finally. "How are you doing?"

"I'm a fair sight better than you at the moment." He said, shrugging, she pushed herself up into a sitting position.

"How's the war going?"

"Well and truly over." Draco told her, shrugging. "You've been out for months." She closed her eyes for a moment in quiet acceptance.

"Well, Draco," she said, her lips forming a tight smile, "when you feel like it, we should probably have a discussion about the future we're going to build for our people." It was that more than anything that told him she was going to be alright. "Baby names might also be a prudent topic." She remarked thoughtfully.

* * *

The years would pass in a steady lull and Draco would watch his classmates marry and have children of their own. He would watch them as they grew older, had grandchildren, and grew older still. In time, he would attend the funerals of each one of his classmates, friends and enemies alike.

Each year seemed to grant him a stronger understanding of the distance between what he was and what he had been, a slow understanding of the price of immortality. "We don't die of natural causes, Draco." She would tell him, "the centuries take their toll. We all choose death eventually." She described it with the same resignation she used to describe the rain, the government, and the tides.

But for the most part, Draco found himself too busy to worry. With a family of his own to care for and frequent arguments with the Ministry of Magic over their vampire policy, he often thought he would have to be immortal simply to finish it all.

Time had changed him, or perhaps it was simply having time. It was not that he was any more patient, simply that he had longer to wait. It was not that he got any less angry, just that his blood could not rush in anger as it once did. In stoic silence he would observe the evening of his own temperament and the lack of concern with those whose lives measured in decades instead of millenia. He would see it in his wife, and later in his children, he would understand that to change the immediate world around you, you had to care enough to do it. He would never care enough to worry about what he had lost.

* * *

Okay, thanks for sticking with me. Sorry about the distance between updates, but it's done, so that's what matters. Planning to write more about Maeve's early years at Hogwarts, may or may not get that done, so we'll see. Thanks again, reviews are delightful.


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